WEIS market members urge SPP to weigh possible fixes for frequent price spikes

摘要

Southwest Power Pool should consider making changes to the Western Energy Imbalance Service market because it appears that the lack of dispatchable capacity and ramping capacity is leading to alarming price spikes, members of SPP’s Western Markets Working Group said Aug. 24. There are times when the locational marginal price will spike up from $20/MWh to $220/MWh, and then quickly drop back down, said Mike Mason, an energy applications services manager at Tri-State Generation & Transmission Association. When prices spike past $100/MWh, Tri-State starts ramping up its resources, he said. But by the time the units are ramped up, the price has dropped back down, he said. “It leaves us exposed. It is kind of an issue for Tri-State. We want to back off our units if ours aren’t the most economic,” he said.