On January 23 the US Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) released a ruling accepting the New York’s Independent System Operator (NYISO) proposal of a new Aggregation Participation Model (APM). The APM will allow aggregators to combine individual facilities, including distributed energy resources (DERs), located on the transmission or distribution system as a single source for purposes of participating in the NYISO-administered energy and ancillary services markets and NYISO’s installed capacity (ICAP) market. Aggregations can consist of two or more resource types, a demand side resource, or a generator located in the New York Control Area. Each resource aggregation would have an injection limit of 20 MW.
In its 2017 roadmap document, the NYISO describes its design proposal in part as follows:
Concept for DER coordination entity aggregation (DCEA) in energy, operating reserves and regulation markets.
“Unlike Demand Side Resources participating in NYISO’s current demand response programs, which are permitted to aggregate on a New York Control Area Load Zone basis, the NYISO proposes to aggregate DER at the transmission node level. Keeping DCEA (DCE Aggregator) electrical footprints behind a single transmission node will appropriately recognize characteristics such as intra-zonal congestion and localized price formation, and encourage location-specific resource siting. As further discussed in the NYISO’s Market Design Concept Proposal on Granular Pricing and Market Price Delivery19 it is the NYISO’s intention to work with the respective utilities to identify the minimum set of transmission load nodes that balance DER aggregation participation and electrical system differences.
“The DCE (DER Coordinating Entity) will be the registered Market Participant responsible for meeting all applicable NYISO obligations of the DCEA (DCE Aggregator) it registers, and of the individual DER in the DCEA. These obligations include NYISO and any applicable utility registration requirements, ensuring the DCEA and individual DER meet all wholesale market participation requirements, completing all required interconnection requirements, and assuming responsibility for all DCEA operation at the direction of the NYISO. The DCE will also be responsible for communications with the NYISO and the Utility.”
Ontario’s Independent Electricity System Operator is also entertaining stakeholder discussion on potential models for aggregation of DERs in Ontario markets, both transmission and distribution level. For more information, see the presentation of January 30 (pages 22-29), the stakeholder engagement on Innovation and Sector Evolution, and article elsewhere in this issue of IPPSO FACTO.
The NYISO’s design concept document is here. The FERC ruling is here.