WestConnect Activities Overview

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WestConnect Activities Overview

• WECC
• Salt Lake City, UT
• May 12, 2009

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Discussion Topics

• WestConnect Overview Membership
• Regional Pricing Experiment
• Virtual Control Area
• ACE Diversity Interchange Virtual Control Area
• Regulation Study NREL Renewables Study
• Transmission Products
• Flow Based Investigations
• Joint Initiatives

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WestConnect

• Executed Restated MOU Among Transmission Owners
  (TOs) in the Western Grid Effective January,
  2007
• Purposes
• Continue investigation of feasibility of
  cost-effective wholesale market enhancements
• Work cooperatively with other Western Grid
  Organizations and market participants
• Address seams issues in appropriate forums

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WestConnect

• Southwest Transmission Cooperative
• Transmission Agency of Northern California
• Tri-State G T Association
• Tucson Electric Power
• Western Area Power Administration
• - Rocky Mountain Region
• - Desert Southwest Region
• Sierra Nevada Region
• CRSP Management Office

Arizona Public Service El Paso Electric Imperial
Irrigation District Nevada Power Company Public
Service Colorado Public Service New
Mexico Sacramento Municipal Utility District Salt
River Project Sierra Pacific Power Company
TOTALS Jan. 2007 46,000 MW of Load 34,000
Miles of Transmission Line 7.0 Million Retail
Customers Served
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WestConnect Accomplishments

• Annual ATC Workshop
• Disclosure of long-term TTC and potential changes
  from planned facilities
• wesTTrans Common OASIS
• Subregional Planning
• CATS, SWAT, CCPG and formation of SSPG
• Quarterly SPG Coordination Meetings
• WECC Seams Issues Process
• Development of Annual WestConnect Transmission
  Plan and Planning Report

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WestConnect Subregional Planning

• WestConnect Objectives and Procedures for
  Regional
  Transmission Planning
• Approved by WestConnect Steering Committee
  August 24, 2006
• WestConnect Project Agreement for
  Subregional
  Transmission Planning (STP Project Agreement)
• Agreement originally executed by 13 WestConnect
  Parties May 2, 2007
• Participation open to Non-WestConnect Members
  Black Hills Basin joined in late 2008
• Requires parties to comply with WestConnect
  Objectives and Procedures for Regional
  Transmission Planning
• Forms a Planning Management Committee
• WestConnect Planning Staff
• K.R. Saline Associates, selected as contractor
  May 23, 2007
• Functional Accountability to Planning Management
  Committee

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WestConnect Subregional Planning

• Subregional Planning Groups (SPG)
• Southwest Area Transmission Planning (SWAT)
• Colorado Coordinated Planning Group (CCPG)
• Sierra Subregional Planning Group (SSPG)
• Relationship to WECC/TEPPC
• SPGs have membership on TEPPC
• WestConnect Planning Manager participates in
  TEPPC activities
• Individual WestConnect Member representatives are
  active in PCC and TEPPC activities

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WestConnectPlanning Cycle Concept

• Publish 10 Yr Plans
• Approve
• Cycle 1 Trans. Reports
• Cycle 2 Study Plans

Planning Report Prep.
Study Plans Dev.
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WestConnect Subregional Planning Study Timeline
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Regional Transmission Pricing

• Status
• Pricing Participation Agreement Executed by 9
  West Connect members effective November 25, 2009
• FERC Orders issued on February 25 March 26,
  2009
• OATI Scheduling Billing platform is being
  tested
• Anticipate Customer Training late May, 2009 and
  Experiment Start on June 1, 2009

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The Experiment

• 2-Year Pilot
• Eliminates transmission rate pancaking for
  limited transactions.
• Continues to pancake ancillary services and
  losses.
• Retains participants posted OATT rates.
• Start-up/implementation costs borne by
  Transmission Customers (thru OATI).
• Can be implemented through wesTTrans platform.
• Did not Require FERC filing for NJs.
• No State approval required.
• Fail-safe clause for NJs.
• Revenue distributed pro rata based on posted rates

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The Regional Rate

• The Regional Rate will be the highest posted OATT
  rate in the path.
• Participants have eliminated the previous concept
  of a Jurisdictional Regional Rate to simplify the
  experiment and avoid confusion among customers.

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Whats the Risk?

• The risk here is one of decreased non-firm
  transmission revenue for the RPs.
• Without an increased number of transactions,
  transmission revenues would decrease for the
  affected RPs and their transmission rate would
  increase.
• The implication of this is that entities not
  benefiting/taking WestConnect service are harmed
  (all other transmission customers).

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Unknowns Unmeasurables

• What is difficult to project is how a WestConnect
  offering might stimulate transmission activity
  e.g., utilize the unutilized ATC.
• If this market enhancement was accepted/successful
  , the amount of decreased non-firm transmission
  revenue could be offset by an increase in
  activity.
• New stimulus might occur in creating paths to
  deliver low-cost energy to higher-priced markets.

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Fail Safe Provisions

• The Participation Agreement is drafted to provide
  an option to all RPs to terminate participation
  at the end of Year 1, without cause.
• There is also a provision that if FERC implicates
  205 review for the NJs, termination can be
  immediate.

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Virtual Control Area

• Three-pronged approach
• ACE Diversity Interchange
• Western Wind Solar Integration Study will
  provide analysis of combined balancing area
  authority operations
• Analysis of reserves sharing pool modifications

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Virtual Control Area

• WestConnect TOs joining the Ace Diversity
  Interchange (ADI) program
• Xcel Energy (PSCO) SRP are connected
• APS, PNM TEP scheduled to connect May/June,
  2009
• NPC/SPPC will connect in 2010
• WAPA investigating participation

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Western Wind Solar Integration Study

• To support multi-state interests in understanding
  the operating and cost impacts due to the
  variability and uncertainty of wind and solar
  power on the grid

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More Western Wind Solar Study

• How can utilities manage the incremental
  variability and uncertainty of wind and solar?
• Do geographically diverse wind/solar resources
  reduce variability and increase transmission
  utilization?
• How do local wind/solar resources compare to
  out-of-state resources in terms of load
  correlation or cost?
• How can hydro help with wind/solar integration?
• The role and value of wind forecasting
• Can balancing area cooperation help manage the
  variability?
• How do wind and solar contribute to reliability
  and capacity value?

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Tasks

• Data Collection
• Wind and solar mesoscale modeling
• Utility load, generator, transmission data
• Preliminary Analysis
• Extensive statistical analysis with various
  options for wind/solar sites and transmission
• Scenario Development
• In-state vs out-of-state resources
• Geographically diverse resources
• Mega projects
• Best correlated with load
• Run Scenarios
• Examine costs due to regulation, load following,
  unit commitment
• Dives to investigate issues such as Hoover
• Examine mitigation strategies/options
• Determine contributions to reliability and
  capacity value
• Draft and Final Report

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Current Status

• Held Stakeholder Meeting to Review Preliminary
  Study Results Feb 25, 2009
• Stakeholder Meeting to Review Study Results
  July 30, 2009
• Updates and information posted on WestConnect
  website
• Final Report due in late 2009

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Revised Study Footprint
Control areas APS El Paso Nevada Power PNM
Sierra Pacific SRP Tristate Tucson Xcel WAPA

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WestConnect Virtual Control Area Study

• Original response to WestConnect RFP exceeded
  cost expectations.
• Work Group met Oct 19 to assess overlap with NREL
  Study and determined
• The Western Study will include 20 and 30
  scenarios, considering control areas individually
  and control areas as one to determine benefits of
  sharing regulation and load following
• Section or chapter of final report to report on
  these results
• WestConnect will conduct reserve sharing as a
  separate study

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For more informationonNREL Wind Solar Study

• Debbie Lew
• NREL
• 303-384-7037
• debra_lew_at_nrel.gov
• http//westconnect.com/init_wwis.php

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Transmission Products

• Regional Business Practices for Conditional Firm
  Service are Posted on the WestConnect Website
• WestConnect members participated in WECC efforts
• High level of consistency among work products in
  the Western Interconnection
• Business practices shared with NAESB as starting
  point for national standard

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Transmission Products

• Work Group has been asked to develop a regional
  approach for Planning Redispatch
• Beginning development of a Business Practice-type
  document
• Work Group will assess potential for a uniform
  methodology for System Impact Studies at a later
  date

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Flow Based Investigations

• Collecting information on flow-based planning and
  operations in other regions
• Assessing potential for an experiment on specific
  paths using flow-based (rather than contract
  based reservation) ATC determination
• Alternatively assessing potential to operate a
  flow-based shadow system to determine
  operational differences

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Joint Initiatives

• Facilitated by
• WestConnect
• Columbia Grid
• Northern Tier Transmission Group

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Joint Initiatives Goal

• Encourage and facilitate Western Interconnection
  parties to develop and implement high-value
  cost-effective regional products
• Broader focus than integration of variable
  generation, but immediate wind and solar
  integration issues provide significant motivation

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Joint InitiativesRelationship with Variable
Generation

• Uniquely situated to assist with timely
  integration of renewable resources
• Short timeframe
• Initial products straightforward (do not require
  tariff amendments)
• Focus is on more efficient use of existing
  transmission, including greater ease in accessing
  system flexibility both within and outside of
  Balancing Authority areas

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Joint InitiativesCurrent Focus

• Currently focused on three areas that relate
  directly to wind integration issues
• Within-Hour Transmission Purchase and Scheduling
  Business Practices (Products and Services Strike
  Team)
• Allows for within-hour schedule changes to
  address unanticipated generation patterns
• Better use of capacity within and outside of BA
  (bilateral transactions) by allowing shorter
  timeframes for scheduling

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Joint InitiativesCurrent Focus

• Intra-Hour Transaction Accelerator Platform
  (I-TAP) (Products and Services Strike Team)
• Facilitates bilateral transactions to address
  unanticipated generation patterns
• Facilitates accessing flexibility both within and
  outside of a BAs area as opposed to relying
  exclusively on BAs system to support wind
  integration
• Helps manage costs of integrating wind

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Joint InitiativesCurrent Focus

• Dynamic Scheduling System (DSS) (Infrastructure
  Strike Team)
• Provides more agile delivery mechanism for
  dynamic energy products (currently, dynamic
  scheduling must be arranged manually days, weeks,
  or months in advance)
• WestConnect Participants are
• Xcel Energy Tri-State G T
• APS WAPA (WACM WALC)
• PNM SRP
• TEP SWTC

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Joint InitiativesPotential Future Activities

• Virtual Control Area Concepts
• Follow WestConnect PNEL/NREL efforts
• Consider Wind Integration requests on a
  case-by-case basis

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Joint InitiativesContacts

• Products and Services Co-Facilitators
• Charlie Reinhold (480-215-0299)
• Kristi Wallis (206-726-1699)
• Infrastructure Facilitator
• Sharon Helms (503-644-6262)
• Joint Initiative materials posted on CG website
• www.columbiagrid.org
•  

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WestConnect Contacts and Information

• WestConnect (www.westconnect.com)
• Charles Reinhold Project Manager
• reinhold_at_globalcrossing.net
• 208-253-6916