On October 15, 2012, FERC Staff issued a report proposing to collect information to track performance and operation of utilities outside of Independent System Operators (“ISOs”) and Regional Transmission Organizations (“RTOs”) (“October 15 Report”). In its October 15 Report, Staff requests participating utilities submit reports by January 25, 2013 that respond to the final list of performance metrics. According to the notice that accompanied the October 15 Report, Staff asks “those public utilities outside of ISOs and RTOs that choose to participate to provide information responding to the attached metrics on a periodic basis.” The notice further states that the Chairman has reviewed the proposed metrics and determined the metrics and related data gathered are necessary. Staff projects the cost of compliance to be $184,460, with 245 hours on average per respondent. Comments may be filed with the Office of Management and Budget 30 days after publication of the notice in the Federal Register.

As part of its Fiscal Year 2009-2014 Strategic Plan, and in connection with a Government Accountability Office request for an investigation into ISO and RTO costs (which also suggested developing performance metrics for non-ISO/RTO regions), Staff has developed two major categories of performance metrics for utilities outside of ISOs and RTOs: (1) reliability and (2) systems operations measures. The reliability metrics measure day-to-day operations and long-term reliability using long-term transmission and resource planning. The systems operations measures look at the operating performance of non-ISO/RTO utilities using system resource and transmission availability, as well as other items.

In its October 15 Report, Staff discusses the idea of a “price metric.” Staff recommends that participating utilities only discuss in their 2012 reports their perspectives on a wholesale price metric, but note they intend to implement a price metric for future reports.

The performance metrics for participating utilities in non-RTO/ISO regions are described in the Appendix of the October 15 Report, and are further described below. Each performance metric can contain several underlying “specific metrics.”

Reliability Metrics:

  • National and Regional Reliability Standards Compliance Metrics;
  • Dispatch Reliability;
  • Load Forecasting Accuracy;
  • Wind Forecasting Accuracy;
  • Unscheduled Flows Metric;
  • Transmission Outage Coordination;
  • Long-Term Reliability Planning – Transmission;
  • Long-Term Reliability Transmission Planning- Resources;
  • Infrastructure Investment–Interconnection and Transmission Process Metrics; and
  • Special Protection Systems.

System Operations Measures:

  • Demand Response;
  • System Lambda;
  • Congestion Management;
  • Resource Availability;
  • Transmission System Availability;
  • Fuel Diversity; and
  • Clean Energy.

A copy of the October 15 Report is available here.