CAISO considers tweaks to flexible capacity rules as duck curve grows
Platts has the details on changes being considered by the California ISO to the alphabet soup that makes up its flexible resource products. The grid’s flexible resource adequacy criteria must-offer obligation (FRAC-MOO) runs alongside utility requirements to acquire more flexible capacity.
A FRAC-MOO web conference is planned for Dec. 5. According to a presentation posted online, the next steps are for the ISO to consider enhancements to the flexible capacity product that increase the overall availability and ramp rate of the flexible capacity fleet, while reducing the minimum operating level of flexible capacity resources.”
The California ISO says it has run analysis from 2012 through 2020 to understand changing grid conditions. Among the challenges are short and steep ramps “when the ISO must bring on or shut down generation resources to meet an increasing or decreasing electricity demand quickly, over a short period of time.”
A key to matching renewable generation to demand is to avoid the possibility of negative wholesale prices, where generators must pay utilities to take energy.
“Oversupply is a manageable condition but it is not a sustainable condition over time — and this drives the need for proactive policies and actions to avoid the situation,” the ISO said in its fact sheet. “The ISO needs flexible resources with the right operational characteristics in the right location.”
