News & Events
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Two application suites are now available for companies that provide Aggregation services to their clients. Sygration's Demand Response Aggregator Manager and ELRP Aggregator Manager are separate services that are hosted from the Sygration site. Both web-based services provide Aggregator Companies with the ability to manage client accounts, generate email alerts based on energy prices or emergency events, and monitor end-user responses through a web interface that is branded with the Aggregator's custom information and corporate logo.
The Demand Response Aggregator Manager was developed for Aggregators that participate in the Ontario Power Authority's (OPA) DR1 voluntary demand response program on behalf of their customers. The back-end server monitors Predispatch energy prices and automatically generates email alerts directly to clients based on their individual strike prices, as well it reports to the Aggregator's administrator. Users are directed to the aggregator-branded site to enter their load curtailment quantity, where the administrator can monitor overall responses or enter them on a client's behalf if necessary.
| DR Aggregator Manager (administrator's screen) | View PDF File |
| User Commitment Facility (client's screen) | View PDF File |
The ELRP Aggregator Manager is suited for Aggregators that participate in the Ontario Independent Electricity Operator (IESO) Emergency Load Reduction Program. The Aggregator administrator creates an ELRP Event by selecting the date and hours to issue (in response to the administrator receiving notification by the IESO). The system then alerts clients using via email and again directs them back to the aggregator-branded application where they can enter their load curtailment quantity.
| ELRP Aggregator Manager (administrator's screen) | View PDF File |
| User Response Facility (client's screen) | View PDF File |
Two long favorite Sygration pages have received tune-ups and were released to Production today; the Ontario Predispatch Convergence Report and the Import / Export Pricing Congestion Report.
The Ontario Predispatch Convergence Report has replaced the fixed $120 price threshold with a user-defined price threshold. Any 3-Hour Ahead Predispatch Price that exceeds your threshold will be flagged on the report. The original $120 price was used for the IESO's Transitional Demand Response Program (TDRP) which ended last year. The threshold you enter is stored in a browser cookie on your computer so it can be automatically retrieved by this page. The report also detects missing Predispatch runs that have failed to be generated (by IESO) or captured (by Sygration) in any hour and shows these on the report.
The Import / Export Pricing and Congestion Report shows energy and operating reserve prices for Ontario and the intertie zones. As before, any historical and forecast congestion is shown by highlighting the prices in red (import congestion) or green (export congestion), and you can choose to hide interface zones which you are not interested in seeing. The new features that have been provided include:
Your settings are stored in a browser cookie and used anytime you visit this page.
Two new gas-fired generation stations began producing significant energy this week.
Sithe Canadian Holdings' 4-unit Goreway Station saw full output on its three gas-turbine units (G11, G12, G13). The station is located in Brampton and uses a massive air-cooled condensor unit for its steam turbines. When its steam turbine unit (G-15) comes on line, the unit will have a total rated output of 880MW.
In Toronto on the site of the old Ontario Hydro RL Hearn Generating Station, the Portland Station also saw full capability testing of its two gas-turbine units (G1 and G2). The station is owned by Portlands Energy Center LP, a partnership between OPG and TransCanada and provides much-needed energy to the downtown Toronto core. The steam-turbine (G3) is expected to be in service in December 2008 and will give the station a total output capability of 550MW.
Dashboard Reports is a new feature that was added to the Sygration Market Dashboard service today. It is a collection of useful reports that allow subscribers to execute complex data queries directly against the Sygration data warehouse. Using the Sygration Query Express engine, users can view the data on-line or download the data in native Microsoft Excel.
The list of reports is expanding based on feedback and requests by Dashboard subscribers. The list currently includes such reports as:
Dashboard Reports is available only to subscribers of the Sygration Market Dashboard, and can be found at: www.sygration.com/reports
Sygration is pleased to make available the paper Utilizing Shadow Prices in the Ontario Electricity Market. This paper is intended for readers that are familiar with the Ontario electricity market and have dispatchable generators or are considering becoming dispatchable.
The document explains how Shadow Prices can be used to determine theoretical dispatch instructions for various offer strategies. This would be useful to new generators wishing to develop a first-time bidding strategy, or to existing generators wishing to fine-tune their offers to acheive more desirable dispatches. It can also be used by non-dispatchable generators that are considering becoming dispatchable to maximize the opportunity of higher energy prices and to enter the operating reserve market. A technique is shown that uses joint optimization to determine dispatch quantities, market schedules and settlements credits using the historical shadow price data. Finally, the Sygration Generation Market Simulator service is introduced as a commercial alternative to parties considering implementing these techniques in-house.
The paper can be downloaded at www.sygration.com/UtilizingShadowPrices.pdf
The Supply Mix Page is one of two new live reports that are available to Sygration Dashboard subscribers. This report combines 4 time-synchronized charts onto one page for showing the relationships between Generator Fuel Supply, Market and Ontario Demand, Intertie flows and Market Prices. The report allows the user to pan and select a specific hour where detailed data will appear for that hour on the right-hand side. Data for the selected hour includes Generator Changes greater than 20MW, Interchange schedules and flows, Market Prices and Generator Outages..
The second report is the Zone Map Page, which provides a live graphical view of Ontario's energy congestion by mapping fifteen Shadow Prices across the province. The map is shown as ten separate regional zones with each having a background color corresponding to the real-time shadow price for that area. The report uses recent Adobe Flash technology and requires the free Flash Player 8 or above plug-in for your browser.
Screen-shots and more information are available at:
Live Reports (Dashboard users only):
| A link on the Dashboard is coming | A link is also available on the Dashboard under "Shadow Prices" category. |
Sygration is pleased to announce the availability of a new Demand Response service for local distributors and energy aggregators. The Demand Response Aggregator Manager is a service provided to companies that offer demand response aggregation services to their customers. The application resides on Sygration's servers and is accessible using a standard web browser, however, it can be branded with the aggregator's own logo.
The application allows the Aggregator administrator(s) to configure individual Strike Prices for each of their participating customers, so that email alerts are automatically generated when the forecast energy price exceeds any Strike Price. The individual email alerts are sent to each Participant, while a summary report is sent to the Aggregator. The application also allows the Aggregator to enter the amount of Committed Demand Response (KW) that each Participant is willing to provide, and tracks an hourly total for submission to a Demand Response Plan sponsor.
Details on the new service is available at http://www.sygration.com/agghelp.html
The Ontario Generator Report has undergone a major facelift and includes more valuable data. The changes to the report include:
The report can be viewed at http://www.sygration.com/gendata/today.html
Up until last Thursday, the IESO only published Ontario Adequacy data to support the DACP process, meaning this data was not updated beyond the first 4 pre-dispatch versions. They now publish this data for all remaining pre-dispatch runs and have also included forecast Exports for the first time. This data is now available on the Dashboard and will continue to update for each pre-dispatch hour. You may notice on your Dashboard that most items are no longer prefixed with "DACP" but are now prefixed with "ADQ", example "DACP CAPACITY ONT MW" is now "ADQ CAPACITY ONT MW".
Only the "DACP ENERGY $" remains unchanged to reflect the DACP Pre-dispatch of Record, as these prices are used for calculating import intertie failure charges. The smart links to the DACP versions of Pre-dispatch Prices, Adequacy and Reliability reports will continue to be available (top-right of Forecast Window).
While forecast Exports are now included in the data, you may notice that these have been forced to 0 MW for the first four pre-dispatch versions of the day-ahead run. The IESO blocks day-ahead Export bids from entering the market operating system until the DACP process has concluded.
An additional forecast data item labeled "ADQ DOM SUP CUSH %" represents the Ontario Domestic Supply Cushion. This item indicates how much remaining domestic energy, as a percentage of total domestic energy requirements, is available on the stack for each forecast hour. This remaining energy includes both offered but unscheduled Ontario generators, and scheduled Ontario dispatchable loads (which can be dispatched down at high prices). It is a useful indicator of prices and price volatility, and can be negative to indicate that imports will be required to meet the Ontario demand.
The list of available forecast items has been updated in the Dashboard help and overview page. You may view this page at http://www.sygration.com/dbinfo
Prince Wind I began commissioning their wind turbines and are now reporting output and capability data, available on the Sygration site under PRINCEFARM. The wind farm is located in the townships of Prince, Dennis and Pennefather, near Sault Ste. Marie, and is owned by Brookfield Power's subsidiary Superior Wind Prince Power Inc. Prince Wind I is first phase of the wind farm and will have a total capability of 99 MW installed on crown and private land. Prince Wind II will see and additional 90 MW in service by Spring 2007.
Access the current and historical output at http://www.sygration.com/cgi-bin/geninfo?g=PRINCEFARM
The commissioning activities over the last week have resulted in peak output of between 6 and 12 MW. Ultimately, both phases of Prince Wind will include a total of 126 General Electric wind turbines each with a capability of 1.5MW. The turbines are connected via a 34.5kV buried cable collection system and are transformed for connection to the IESO controlled grid between MacKay TS and Third Line TS.
A new demand response tool was release today for industrial and large commercial consumers. The Sygration Demand Response Load Shifting Calculator was developed for companies that are able to shift their power consumption between hours to take advantage of lower cost electricity rates within a day. Using the most recent historical and forecast energy prices, along with the user's planned hourly energy consumption, the Load Shifting Calculator estimates the total expected energy costs for the current or next day. The tool allows the user to adjust their energy plan and shift consumption away from higher-cost hours to reduce total energy costs while meeting their total daily energy requirements. The tool can also be used by energy limited generators (small hydroelectric units with limited water resources) to determine their optimal running schedule.
The Sygration Load Shifting Calculator is currently free of charge to registered uses. More information is available at http://www.sygration.com/drcalcsample.html
Sygration released a new version of the Market Dashboard today to coincide with the IESO's Day Ahead Commitment Process (DACP). If you are a regular user of the Sygration Dashboard, you will notice several new enhancements:
The Sygration Dashboard is a subscription-based service available only to subscribers. More information and screen-shots are available at http://www.sygration.com/dbinfo
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