Reducing the price of electricity has a cost, often expressed in the form of lower revenues for power plant operators—after they have invested in upgraded connections to the system operator linking them to power purchasers. Lower power plant revenues are one result of the ancillary services markets (ASM) the ISO has developed over the last three years to meet federal regulatory concerns about the system’s short-term reliability and the ability of the ISO to retain independent control of the transmission system. Specifically, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission said it was concerned about the ability of the 24 balancing authorities within the Midwest ISO to re-dispatch power plant operation.

…To bridge the gap between the existing control software that operates each power plant and the software developed by each ISO to control its ASM, FERC has mandated the use of ICCP, “inter-control center communications protocol,” a standardized communications technology providing data exchange between utility control centers, power pools, ISOs and power plants.

Two power plants operating in the Midwest ISO, Kinder Morgan in Jackson, Mich., and the Fox Energy Center in Kaukauna, Wis., are using the LiveData RTI Server (for real-time integration) from LiveData Inc. as their ICCP communications technology, according to LiveData Chief Executive Officer Jeff Robbins.
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