Studies in the Governance of Regional Transmission Organizations
Open Access
- Author:
- Johnson, Nicholas
- Graduate Program:
- Energy and Mineral Engineering
- Degree:
- Doctor of Philosophy
- Document Type:
- Dissertation
- Date of Defense:
- July 21, 2021
- Committee Members:
- Mort D Webster, Program Head/Chair
Jennifer Baka, Outside Unit & Field Member
Seth Blumsack, Chair & Dissertation Advisor
Joel Landry, Major Field Member
Hannah Wiseman, Major Field Member - Keywords:
- RTO
Regional Transmission Organizations
Organizational Behavior
PJM
NYISO
ISO-NE
Network Analysis - Abstract:
- The introduction of Regional Transmission Organizations (RTOs) in the US was done in order to lower consumer costs and increase reliability through the power of markets. Since their introduction 20 years ago the landscape in which RTOs find themselves has changed dramatically with the introduction of new public policy measures and technologies. RTOs now have a much more complex environment to operate in, with the core RTO functions of running energy markets, ensuring reliability, and operating the grid having become increasingly interconnected. As voluntary, member-driven organizations, it has been up to the stakeholders to manage the market and operational changes necessary while also developing the stakeholder processes that allow them to do so. In the PJM Interconnection, the expanded scope of responsibilities, complexity, and member body size has created tensions within the stakeholder processes that has led some to question the efficacy of existing decision-making structures, and in Chapter 1 we present a case study examining PJM stakeholders’ perceptions of the PJM stakeholder process in order to better understand what the external and internal stresses are to the process and how they might be addressed. We find three primary factors underpinning the current stresses in the stakeholder process: the emerging influence of new energy policy objectives at both the state and federal levels, a narrowing of stakeholder interests as markets mature, and increasing reactions by RTO staff to address these first two issues when PJM members are unable to do so. Chapter 2 examines community structure in the voting networks of the three RTOs in the northeast: the New England Independent System Operator, the New York Independent System Operator, and PJM. We ask what the structure of the network says about the distribution of political power with the RTOs, how the voting networks of capacity market votes differ from the voting networks of other issues, and how stable communities remain over time. We find strong evidence that stakeholder sector affiliation is a prime driver of community structure, but that different voting structures in each RTO’s stakeholder process leads to diverse outcomes. In PJM coalition stability for votes about capacity market issues over time are less strong than expected. In NE-ISO we find stability of votes when analyzed by issue. In Chapter 3 we illustrate how daily electrical grid management decisions can incorporate information from air quality forecasts in an attempt to avoid daily O3 exceedances—non attainment days—by shifting the location of electricity generation. Temporarily redispatching generation away from forecasted regions of high O3 has the potential to reduce the costs associated with traditional emissions control strategies while still achieving pollution reductions. We use the direct decoupled method integrated sensitivity analysis tool in CAMx to estimate the sensitivity of 8-hr O3 to NOx emissions from two sets of power plants within the Eastern Interconnect and PJM. Those sensitivities are then used to estimate the least-cost means of reducing high O3 by coupling them with electricity dispatch done via OPF run PowerWorld Simulator. This coordinated modeling system provides a framework for an adaptive air quality management system that dynamically targets individual power plants through redispatch. This, in effect, reduces emissions from critical sources without requiring costly investment in smokestack controls, thereby eliminating much of the cost associated with traditional pollution abatement strategies. It is found in some scenarios that key power plants lie outside the PJM control region, indicating the need for cross-RTO coordination.