Integration of market operations and system operations

A regional transmission organization typically administers several markets. These include energy markets, ancillary service markets and long-term capacity markets. At the same time, the RTO is responsible for operating the system in a reliable fashion. These functions can be complementary. For example, ancillary service markets provide mechanisms by which sufficient reserves can be scheduled to meet reliability goals. Long-term capacity markets can ensure that sufficient generation capacity is available for reliable operations in future years. Or, market operations and reliability requirements can adversely impact each other if an ISO relies heavily on out-of-market actions to meet reliability requirements, increasing uplift costs to loads and potentially increasing the opportunities for market manipulation.