Operating Reserve Requirements
January 5, 2023
The IESO is streamlining the approval process for market participants willing to provide operating reserve (OR) into the IESO-administered markets from their existing, already registered facilities.
Currently, any participant that plans on providing OR using their existing facilities must go through the Connection Assessments and Approval (CAA) process and obtain a System Impact Assessment (SIA). The streamlined process will eliminate the need to obtain an OR-related SIA for existing facilities, while the IESO continues to require the OR providers to meet the performance requirements stipulated in the existing market rules. The participants will receive their approval to provide OR directly through the IESO market registration once all the performance requirements are met and testing is complete.
The OR requirements will be summarized in the next revision of Market Manual 1.5. The changes will be posted on January 11, 2023 on the IESO’s Pending Changes-Documents web page for feedback, with comments due to pending.changes@ieso.ca by January 25, 2023. New or modified facilities still need to go through the CAA process should they meet the criteria in Sections 1 and/or 9.2 of Market Manual 1.4. In doing so, please make it known if the facility intends to provide OR. Please send any questions or concerns to connection.assessments@ieso.ca.