FERC approves electronic dispatch of wind, hydro generation in New England
The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission has approved a request by New England’s independent electricity system operator to implement a modified electronic dispatch method for certain wind and hydropower generators that are classified as intermittent power resources under ISO New England Inc.’s market rules.
Hydropower resources across the U.S. contribute significantly to operation of the grid in terms of energy, capacity and ancillary services.
In its FERC filing, ISO-NE explained that intermittent power resources, which do not have direct control over their net power output, are not currently electronically dispatchable and must be manually curtailed to manage congestion.
The system operator said the manual process is inefficient, as the curtailment and the congestion are not reflected in real-time prices. ISO-NE said that results in a mismatch of economic signals and reliability requirements as the energy prices indicate that low cost resources should continue operating at the same time that manual curtailment instructions are being issued to ensure reliable operation.
