What follows is the PR persons bogus attempt at a response & kiss off.
I am going on vacaction until next week and will sleep on my response. I will be away from my computer for several days starting early tomorrow morning, but would appreciate thoughts on what I should do in a polite but escalating approach to finding the truth.
Mr. (me),
The WECC reserve requirement is not an instantaneous one, but rather a requirement that the integrated value over the course of any clock hour meets the minimum standard. For example, a Control Area could be drifting between 100 and 200 MW short of its reserve requirement for the first 30 minutes of the clock hour, but as long as it makes up that deficiency and carries enough reserve above the requirement for the last 30 minutes of the hour such that the actual Operating Reserve value at the end of the hour integrates to something equal to or greater than the requirement, you have met the criteria as a Control Area operator. Additionally, if a disturbance (loss of generation) in the Control Area has caused the ISO to utilize its operating reserve to recover ACE and frequency, we have 60 minutes to return our actual Operating Reserve to the required level.
If you feel the need to respond to this email, please respond to me. Our technical staff is dealing with a heavy workload here at the ISO. I think they have done a good job responding to your question. Any additional research, is more than we are able to provide. Thanks.
It's a bogus definition from a mathematical point of view, since under their definition the system could be a zillion MW short for 30 minutes, but that would not trigger an emergency as long as they believed they could scrounge up a zillion MW to cover during the next 30 minutes.
The protective relays on the system don't know that everything is going to be OK in thirty minutes; When they see an undervoltage or an underfrequency, they trip. It's that simple. Not all the PR BS in the world will prevent that from happening. Clearly, the rule was intended to be a line that, when crossed or projected to be crossed, the emergency would be declared. Period.
But Cal-ISO is saying "We can cross the line for a little while if we think we can come right back". IOW, it depends on what the definition of "is" is.
I'm cynical that anybody other than us FReepers will much care about this, though. [Unless there is a grid crash]. As we have seen lately, nobody cares about accounting rules until the company goes under.