Sometimes the terminology ‘Compliance Status’ is used interchangeably.
(A) ‘Conformance’ and ‘Compliance’ mean different things!
We like to think about it in the following terms:
1) AEMO determines ‘Conformance Status’ as part of their process of balancing supply and demand; whereas
2) AER focuses on ‘Compliance Status’ in terms of whether generators specifically follow Market Rules.
On 8th December 2020, Marcelle posted a short article and video answering the question ‘Conformance and Compliance – what’s the difference?’ that is very relevant here (though note that the video was specifically focused on Semi-Scheduled generators).
(B) What does the AEMO mean by ‘Conformance Status’?
We will expand this further, as time permits…
(B1) States of Conformance Status
This is a five-tier status index which is established (by AEMO) for every* Scheduled and Semi-Scheduled DUID in the NEM, for every Dispatch Interval.
* Note that Non-Scheduled plant do not receive dispatch targets, so a Conformance Status cannot be calculated. In simple terms, they are allowed to operate however they like.
The States are as follows:
0 = Normal (which occurs the vast majority of time)
1 = Off-Target
2 = Not Responding
3 = NC Pending
4 = Non Conforming
(B2) Calculating ‘Conformance Status’ for Scheduled Plant
Starting with the ‘Raw Off-Target’ measure, AEMO’s automated mechanisms determine whether a Scheduled unit has a status other than normal with reference to:
Consideration #1) reference of the size of the ‘Raw Off-Target’ in relation to an allowable ‘Small Trigger Error’ and a (separately) allowable ‘Large Trigger Error’; and then
Consideration #2) reference to what the count was with respect to these trigger levels in the prior dispatch interval; and
Consideration #3) what the Conformance Status was in the last dispatch interval (i.e. specifically whether to escalate the level).
Our reading of AEMO’s operating procedures are that AEMO also has some flexibility (should circumstances warrant) to manually trigger a change in Conformance Status over and above the automated logic outlined broadly here.
(B3) Calculating ‘Conformance Status’ for Semi-Scheduled Plant
For Semi-Scheduled plant the above applies, with the added considerations that:
Added Consideration #4) the DUID can only be other than ‘Normal’ when the Semi-Dispatch Cap flag is on (i.e. when AEMO is telling the DUID it needs to adhere to the Dispatch Target); and also
Added Consideration #5) only when this SDC is on, the DUID needs to regard the Target more like a ‘cap’ (i.e. output should not exceed this level) rather than the stricter target which needs to apply for all Scheduled units.
(C) Visualising (derived) ‘Conformance Status’ in our products
The relevant MMS table containing AEMO’s specific fields flagging official Conformance Status are confidential for all time (i.e. not ‘next day public’) – we’re not really sure why, really.
However in the absence of access to this table, even in Time-Travel, we have built our own query that (we believe) mimics the automated processes used by the AEMO – though not the manual ones – and represent what we believe is the Conformance Status for each unit for every DUID for every Dispatch Interval.
(C1) ‘Conformance Status’ in ez2view
In the ‘Unit Dashboard’ widget of ez2view we include a reverse engineering of Conformance Status of the focused DUID for the dispatch intervals shown. This needs ‘Next Day Public’ data to work.
(C2) ‘Conformance Status’ in the Generator Statistical Digest (GSD)
We released the GSD2019 on 28th January 2020 and the GSD2020 on 1st February 2021.
On the ‘B’ Page of these reports we included a reverse engineering of AEMO’s Conformance Status logic to tabulate how many hours a given DUID was not ‘Normal’ through each month of the year in focus.
The ‘B’ Page of the GSD2020 also needed to account for Suppression of the AEMO’s conformance status (during periods where PFR was being implemented).
(C3) ‘Conformance Status’ in articles here on WattClarity ®
Articles tagged with ‘Conformance Status’ are here, whilst articles specifically tagged with ‘Non-Conformance’ are here.