Dispatchable Tools

This section covers Bidding, Financial Verification and Electricity Use Reporting for Ontario Electricity Customers who are IESO Dispatchable Market Participants.

Who are IESO Market Participants?

• IESO participants are those entities registered with the IESO and approved to operate at some level within the energy market. Large Commercial/industrial loads can optionally place bids for energy that they will consume.
• Commercial/Industrial loads are billed for the energy they use based on the price at the time of consumption.
• When a load runs as non-dispatchable (no bids), they are billed at the hourly Ontario energy price (HOEP)
• If a load runs as dispatchable (bids are submitted), they are billed at the 5 minute Market Clearing Price (MCP).
• Loads that make bids for energy are scheduled to run based on the bid they have made.

Dispatchable Load Participants

• Dispatchable loads are active participants in the Ontario electricity market. They are able to adjust the amount of energy they consume in response to ‘dispatch instructions’ from the IESO. Through a market bid, dispatchable loads select a price at which they no longer wish to consume a certain quantity of electricity.
• If the Ontario energy price reaches a level that is greater than the price it is willing to pay, the dispatchable load must reduce consumption by the specified quantity. It should be noted, that when a dispatchable load is instructed by the control room to lower its consumption, it must comply with the request.

LCA Energy Management Software allows Companies to participate in the IESO market as a Dispatchable participant and manage their electricity costs through Bidding, Monitoring and Reporting!

With LCA you will…

• Be able to bid into the market
• Be able to receive IESO instructions and automatically respond
• Be able to generate financial and energy daily and monthly reports
• Know what you electricity expenses are at any time of the month
• Verify electricity bills and invoices
• Monitor and receive alerts of unexpected electricity price spikes
• Generate financial reports long before receipt of IESO invoices
• Have instant access to up to date consumption information
• Avoid paying unnecessarily due to lack of information

Operating Reserve ( OR Market Participation )

A significant benefit of becoming a dispatchable load is the ability to participate in the operating reserve (OR) market.

Operating reserve is stand-by capacity that is kept online in case the power system suffers a severe strain and reserve power is required to be used as energy. By participating in the ten minute non-synchronized and thirty minute OR markets, dispatchable loads will receive stand-by payments for all megawatts they bid into the OR market.

Even if the OR they offer is not activated, dispatchable loads continue to earn financial rewards from the OR market without making changes to their production schedule.

Typical Facility Application

The following equipment is required to be installed in a typical IESO dispatchable participant’s facility.

A dispatch manager computer that communicates with the IESO over a secure connection and which receives IESO generated instructions and which sends bids to the IESO from the plant.

An LCA data server computer that contains the LCA software and which communicates with the IESO dispatch manager computer and with the SQL database. Interface client software, provided by LCA, runs on the plant’s workstations and interfaces with the LCA data server through the plant’s Ethernet network.

Metering data is either read directly from the meters or from databases, such as PI, by the LCA communication software.

Remote support is provided by LCA through a VPN secure connection.

Typical System Layout Drawing

LCA IESO Dispatchable Client Software

The LCA client provides a real-time view of bids, dispatches and energy levels.

The LCA client software runs on the plant operator’s computer usually located in the control room. This computer will normally show the Realtime Dispatch status screen .

For other users wishing to view reports etc. the IESO client icon installed on their desktop will launch the software to access IESO reports via their plant’s LAN. The following slide shows a typical report.

Monthly Dispatch Credit Report

It’s important to know how you are doing financially at at point during the month.  Our Dispatch Credit Report clearly indicates revenue derived from Dispatch incidents throughout the month.

Real Time Dispatch Status Display

This screen provides a summary of all important dispatch information and is the default screen for operators, showing current dispatchable status.

Summary Tab:

The summary tab provides current information about the dispatchable status.

The top section will display the most recent dispatch messages received from the IESO.

The second section will display the current bid information as submitted to the IESO and scheduled for dispatch. This section includes your OR scheduled load.

The third section displays the plant load as available from in house metering data.

The bottom section of the screen is visible on all three status screens and displays current system status.

The Dispatch Messages Display

The Dispatch Messages Tab shows the last 30 dispatch messages that have been received from the IESO. The list can be filtered by turning on and off the checkboxes below the list. When you click on an item in the list, the details about that dispatch will be displayed in the message details area.

Bidding Display for placing bids with the IESO

Bids must be submitted to the IESO either through the Market Participant Interface, or by using software that submits bids for you using the IESO’s software API.

Bids must follow certain rules as to when they can be placed and when they can be changed.

There are two main types of bids, Standing and Normal.

Standing bids become active on the second day after they are submitted and approved.

Normal Bids are used to bid into the market the day before the energy is to be consumed. Normal bids are also used to modify a bid that has already been accepted.

When the facility status changes during normal dispatchable operation, the Bid tab will allow the operator to submit bid changes to the IESO as quickly and simply as possible.

Instant Access to Electricity Usage Information

LCA software gives you tabular and graphical real-time and historical access to consolidated electricity energy and demand information by either :-

Gathering the metering data directly from the electricity meters themselves using Modbus/TCP protocol

Reading available metering information from existing databases, such as PI Historian, or other data sources.

(c) Combinations of (a) and (b)

The result is centralized data in the LCA SQL database that can be compared directly to IESO Billings. The LCA software can collect both Utility and sub-metered energy usage data.

Electricity Billing Analysis and Cost Allocation

Estimate IESO Invoices in advance!

LCA software automatically creates an estimated bill at the end of each month, which will detail the electricity charges ahead of the official IESO invoice, which is typically delivered 15 days following the last day of the month.

The LCA generated bill may be used as a check bill and allows the customer to have a very close estimate of actual costs before official billing documents arrive from the IESO.

Know your electricity costs at any time of the month!

LCA Software can provide you with projected electricity costs at any time during the month and even estimate bills to the end of the current month. This feature is available with real time data collection from your meters or by getting data from available data sources including the IESO.

Flexible reporting to match your Company’s accounting preferences!

LCA Software allows the billing interval start and end dates to be set by the user . The software can provide you with accurate electricity costs at any time during the selected billing period .

Break down electricity costs by facility, department, process or machine!

If sub-metering information is available the LCA Software breaks down the IESO bill by department or meter and even allocates coincident peak demand costs so that each point pays as per their overall contribution to the peak demand.

The display above allows line items on your bill to be verified against the IESO invoice.

LCA Software provides comprehensive IESO billing reports, allowing you to compare line items quickly and easily to ensure you can address any discrepancies in a timely manner. The IESO allows a limited time after the invoice is issued to address any billing discrepancies

For more information on LCA Dispatchable Load Solutions, please contact us at 1-866-321-1886 or email us here.