IESO Weekly Bulletin

February 2, 2012

In this issue:

Stakeholder Engagement
- NERC Reliability Standards Available for Review

Market and Systems Operations
- Reminder: Routine Voltage Reduction Test on February 7
- January 2012 Pricing Events

Planned IT Outages

Upcoming Events

Stakeholder Engagement
NERC Reliability Standards Available for Review

North American Electric Reliability Corporation (NERC) standards related to critical infrastructure protection and transmission system planning are available for review. Market participants have until February 22, 2012, to apply to the Ontario Energy Board (OEB) for a review of the following standards, which were adopted by the NERC Board of Trustees:
-        CIP-001-2a - Sabotage Reporting
-        CIP-005-4a - Cyber Security - Electronic Security Perimeter(s)
-        TPL-001-2 - Transmission System Planning Performance Requirements

The three standards have been posted on the OEB Remand Process page on the IESO's website: http://www.ieso.ca/imoweb/ircp/reliabilityStandards-OEB_Remand.asp. Additional revisions have been made to this page according to the IESO's proposal presented at the Reliability Standards Standing Committee (RSSC) meeting on December 20, 2011.

NERC standards can be found at: http://www.nerc.com/page.php?cid=2|20.

Market and System Operations
Reminder: Routine Voltage Reduction Test on February 7

The IESO will perform a voltage reduction test on Tuesday, February 7, 2012. Voltage reductions are tested every 18 months to simulate emergency actions available to the IESO to maintain system reliability. There will be a three percent voltage reduction test between 9:00 and 10:00 EST, followed by a five percent test between 13:00 and 14:00 EST.

Electricity consumers should be unaffected as voltages will remain within industry standards specified for equipment used by residential and commercial consumers. Consumers with questions or concerns about the test should contact their local distribution company.

For more details, please see the item published in the January 12, 2012 IESO Bulletin, available at http://www.ieso.ca/imoweb/news/newsItem.asp?newsItemID=5933, or contact IESO Customer Relations.

January 2012 Pricing Events
There were nine instances where the Hourly Ontario Energy Price (HOEP) was less than $0 during the month of January. These instances were caused by ample generation availability and mild weather conditions. The lowest HOEP for the month was -$128.25 set on January 2, hour ending 3. The lowest hourly market demand for the month was established during the following hour at 13,680 MW. It was also during hour ending 4 on January 2 that the lowest 5-minute interval price for the month was set at -$128.30.

The HOEP did not go above $200 during the month of January. This is the fifth consecutive month where prices have remained below this level. The highest HOEP for the month was $135.25, set on January 3, hour ending 20. The highest 5-minute interval price, $187.76, was also set the same day during interval 2 of hour ending 21. The peak hourly market demand of 24,158 MW was on January 19, hour ending 18.

Planned IT Outages
Planned IT outages over the next week currently include brief outages to Message Exchange on Monday, February 6 and Thursday, February 9, 2012. During these outages, automated dispatch instructions will be unavailable (the IESO will manually dispatch by telephone as necessary), administrative pricing will be used, and pre-dispatch and dispatch schedules and prices may not be updated. There will also be short outages to the Reliability Compliance Tool on February 6 and to the Online Outage Request Form in the late morning on Wednesday, February 8.

The IESO's Planned IT System Outages web page provides an easy way to view all planned outages: http://www.ieso.ca/it.outages. The page is updated frequently and planned outages are posted as soon as they are finalized.

Upcoming Events
February 13 - Renewable Integration SE-91 - Dispatch Technical Working Group Meeting (Mississauga)

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