Minutes from last Thurs' CAISO Board Meeting (Sorry for the delay)

CAISO BOG 10/25/01
Notes taken by G. Alan Comnes

Meeting went from about 10:30 to 1 p.m.

Written materials discussed at this meeting are available at www.caiso.com/bog.

1. Budget. Board approved budget, which contains a significant increase in GMCs and, for the first time applies GMC fees, on the self provision of A/S. The motion to adopt was modified to say the Board would revisit budget if, in response to Gov. Davis requests to par budgets, the CAISO budget is cut.
2. Retirement plan Audit
3. Allocation of Above-MCP 487 charges. This mechanism will improve the allocation of OOM costs so that the per-MWh charges match up with actual OOM costs. Stated that penalty revenues used to lower OOM costs could come from imbalance penalties. Action. approved (?) to allow staff to make a tariff amendment on this change.
4. Winter Assessment. Presentation by staff Kahn took issue (i.e., did not even want staff report presented) that CAISO does an assessment without consulting the Power Authority, CPUC, and the CEC. Worried about conflicting with the other resource assessments out there and giving media ways to take shots at DWR buying practices. In the end, the full presentation was not given but questions were asked about whether the assessment spells trouble or provides assurance. The answer: things are tight in some months but are expected to be ok given the level of conservative assumptions used in the analysis. Action: staff was tasked to compare this assessment with CEC's and others and come back in another month.
5. Generator maintenance program. Will use GADS data. This program is mandatory for PGA generator units. CAISO staffer represented that no other ISO has a prescriptive program like the one CAISO is proposing. Current schedule: brief FERC staff next week, return to Board in November for approval, make FERC filing, implement in early '02. Benchmarks are based on each unit's historical performance; i.e. dogs will be benchmarked against their past doggy behavior. There is no component to raise the "bar" on performance but a unit that falls relative to past performance would trigger further review.
6. MSC Selection Committee. MSC provides "independent" review of the CAISO markets for CAISO, the state, and FERC. Wolak is the only member left at the moment. Selection committee will be Sheffrin, Wolak, and Borenstein. Candidates will go to Exec. Director and the final candidates to the Board in February 2002 (!). Kahn questioned how the MSC can survive with only one member and take until February 02 to select a final members. Nonetheless, the glacially paced schedule was adopted.
7. FERC RTO Seams Issues. Steve Greenleaf presented. Updated BOG on RTO week and said that the "4 RTO" model took a step backward ("off the table" in the words of Chair Wood) in response to criticism from state PUCs on Thursday. (Is this an accurate recounting of Day 4?). ISO is engaged in interregional coordination. Mentioned "CSIC" group Mentions SSGWY's (?)sponsorship of a market monitoring workshop on November 16.
8. Update of CERS Settlement BEEP/AS Payment Procedure. Edison and PG&E "are making progress" but no agreement with CERS have been reached. SDG&E signed and the procedure was implemented at least in part with SDG&E.
9. Monthly reports: financial.
10. Monthly reports: DMA. Sheffrin. Mostly followed the briefing charts. Emphasized the following: CERS OOM purchases are generally down and are reasonably priced once purchases and sales are disaggregated. Said that suppliers are still bidding above costs. DMA files confidential reports that include info on bidding data weekly to FERC. Bids are not coming down. Intrazonal congestion is up due to new generation coming on line. That allows generators to play the "dec" game.