CORE STRENGTH KEY TO POWER SAVINGS
Summer being right around the corner, now is an ideal time for businesses in the Midwest and Northeast to avail themselves of Calpine Energy Solutions’ Capacity Obligation Re-duction Effort (CORE) program. A completely voluntary program that runs every June 1 through September 30 (July 1 through August 31 in NYISO), CORE can help companies save money on their capacity costs in MISO, PJM, NYISO, and ISO-NE for next year.
A consumer’s capacity charges in those regions are a function of not only local capacity auction clearing prices but also the consumer’s peak load contribution (PLC), effectively its share of the total system load during the peak-load hour of the peak-load day of the preceding year. (PJM actually considers the peak-load hour of each of the five highest peak-load days of the previous year.) Therefore, if a company can lower its PLC, the resulting reduction in capacity costs will be reflected in its electricity invoices for the next planning year.
Calpine Energy Solutions’ CORE team helps customers maximize their opportunities for such savings by using its sophisticated forecasting system to notify them of potential peak-load days, sometimes several days in advance. Each notification suggests a specif-ic date and hours for power curtailment, tailored to each customer’s unique circumstanc-es. With the CORE team’s expert insight, a customer can then curtail its energy use how-ever it sees fit, whether by turning some lights off, raising the thermostat setting, or shift-ing production outside peak hours. Then, after the ISOs publish their system peaks, Cal-pine Energy Solutions, for those customers that would like it, will issue a “SCORE Card” like the following, which provides an estimate of the annual capacity savings achieved:
