News Digest

 

Dynegy says California ISO grants sweetheart deals to out-of-state plants.

Claiming $2 million in loses since Nov. 1, Dynegy Power Marketing Inc. accused the California Independent System Operator of playing favorites when it goes looking for energy to cover imbalances or supply ancillary services for the next day during a "super peak," by going out of state to negotiate purchases from off-system generators at lucrative high market prices, while at the same time forcing in-state, on-system generators (like Dynegy), to honor their commitments under the Participating Generator Agreements and supply energy to the ISO on the ISO's demand through the remedial "Out-of-Market" (OOM) tariff procedure, at much lower preset prices.

In its complaint filed Dec. 22, Dynegy asked the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission to force the ISO, no later than March 1, to honor its "long-promised proposal" to create a third payment option (instead of the OOM rate or selling through an institutional auction like the California Power Exchange), that would permit a generator subject to OOM calls to elect to be paid its day-ahead pre-submitted bid or call price.

Meanwhile, the ISO insists that it is "willing to review" alternative payment approaches. But it says it will discuss the matter only if Dynegy will cooperate and respond when the ISO calls during an emergency to issue operating instructions for Dynegy's generating plants.