The Members Committee approved by acclamation a rate-increase proposal that struck a balance between allowing for cost increases and providing long-term certainty.
Members endorsed the Finance Committee’s unanimous recommendation for a composite rate of $0.36/MWh for two years and then a 2.5% annual increase that will result in a rate of $0.41/MWh in 2024. The approved rate schedule creates the lowest projected refunds, explained PJM’s Suzanne Daugherty, and allows for future revisions. The ability to install fee escalators later was built in, along with a five-year review.
PJM touted Moody’s Investors Service’s recent upgrade in the RTO’s credit rating, which praised its structure for recovering administrative costs.
“Under stated rates, PJM uses fixed, long-term capped rates for the administrative costs of managing the grid and wholesale electricity markets. Costs are managed within the rates,” PJM explained. “Other grid operators automatically pass through their administrative costs to members through formula rates that vary from month-to-month or year-to-year.”
PJM noted it has taken on additional responsibilities since the rates were first implemented in 2006, including enhanced physical and cybersecurity, increased planning and analysis related to changing governmental policies and implementation of new technologies.
Transmission Task Force Halts Most Action in Response to FERC Order
Calling it a “unique situation,” PJM’s Fran Barrett won approval from the Markets and Reliability Committee to suspend most of the activities of the Transmission Replacement Processes Senior Task Force in response to a recent FERC order.
The Aug. 26 Order to Show Cause calls into question whether PJM transmission owners, per FERC’s Order 890, are complying with their local transmission planning obligations, specifically with respect to supplemental projects (EL16-71). (See FERC Orders PJM TOs to Change Rules on Supplemental Projects.)
All but the task force’s forward-looking work on transmission project costs — which isn’t affected by the order — has been suspended.
PJM and the TOs have until Oct. 25 to respond to the FERC order, which opened a Section 206 proceeding. An addendum was also approved that allowed the task force to reconvene in March if FERC, which has no deadline for responding, hasn’t acted.
Susan Bruce, who represents the PJM Industrial Customer Coalition, commended the parties involved for maintaining communication during resolution of the issue.
Proposal Chosen for Capacity Release
After months of consideration, the MRC approved the straight-line offer curve PJM proposed for selling back excess capacity in February’s third incremental auction for the 2017/18 delivery year. The curve had to compete against several member proposals, but it was ultimately recommended by the Market Implementation Committee on Sept. 14. (See “PJM’s Straight-Line Offer Curve Recommended for Capacity Sellback,” PJM Market Implementation Committee Briefs.)
Members voted over the objections of Market Monitor Joe Bowring, who reiterated his concerns that the RTO is undervaluing the capacity and shouldn’t publicly broadcast its asking price. “PJM bought this capacity for a fairly high price. We believe, with reliability and the benefits associated with it, the minimum price should be much higher than you’re proposing,” he said.
No Objections to Metering Revisions
The MRC approved revisions to Manual 1 to close gaps in understanding between staff and members on metering rules. The proposal had minor edits from previous presentations, but it maintained its basis on solutions recommended by the Metering Task Force. (See “Metering Standards Ready for Stakeholder Vote,” PJM Markets and Reliability Committee Briefs.)
Flexibility for Vendors Approved for Competitive Bidding Rules
A PJM request to revise the Operating Agreement’s requirement to use open and competitive bidding when procuring goods or services from a member breezed through both the MRC and MC without objection.
There was some minor concern that the revisions — which exclude certain vendors from PJM’s competitive bidding requirements — might eventually allow for awkward conflicts of interest, but PJM assured that the screenings it devised would eliminate the potential.
PJM’s solution cribs off an existing provision in the OA that addresses a similar issue in allowing PJM personnel to invest in member companies with a de minimis PJM relationship based on a three-part test. To avoid the competitive bidding rules, a company must not:
be considered an electric sector company under the North American Industry Classification System;
receive more than 0.5% of its gross revenue from PJM; and
be involved in more than 3% of PJM’s total market transactions.
“What we found is that over the years, increasing numbers of nontraditional companies … engaged in activities at PJM as a member, but their focus was on other areas” than participating in the energy markets, explained PJM’s Steve Pincus. As examples, he cited office suppliers, such as Target and Walmart, and software companies, such as Microsoft and Siemens.
Responding to stakeholder requests, PJM said it would consider providing a list of the vendors it uses for operations and services as long as it doesn’t run afoul of any confidentiality or disclosure rules.
FE’s MAIT Receives Needed OA Revisions
FirstEnergy received approval for several Operating Agreement changes that will allow Mid-Atlantic Interstate Transmission, its newly formed transmission subsidiary, to assume the rights and obligations of Metropolitan Edison and Pennsylvania Electric in PJM’s Consolidated Transmission Owners Agreement. (See NJ Opposition Derails FirstEnergy’s Tx Reorganization — but not Projects.)
FE plans to make necessary FERC filings in October with a targeted effective date of Jan. 1. Several “legacy” contracts won’t have their interconnection service agreements finalized until later that month.
MRC Endorses Manual Changes
Members unanimously approved the following manual changes:
AUSTIN, Texas — ERCOT’s Technical Advisory Committee passed three nodal protocol revision requests (NPRRs) Thursday to improve the ISO’s reliability-must-run procedures following its decision earlier this summer to extend an RMR contract for an aging natural-gas unit in the Houston area.
The three revisions, previously endorsed by the Protocol Revision Subcommittee, would modify the Texas grid operator’s RMR planning studies, create a clawback mechanism for ERCOT-funded capital expenditures and clarify the reliability unit commitment process. The Board of Directors is scheduled to consider all three revision requests at its Oct. 11 meeting. The NPRRs were classified as urgent requests following this summer’s extension of an RMR contract through 2018 for NRG Texas’ Greens Bayou Unit 5. (See ERCOT Finds No Alternatives to Greens Bayou; RMR Rule Changes Advance.)
The TAC approved NPRR788, which modifies the system’s RMR planning studies, after accepting revisions from the Independent Market Monitor. The revision request will require that future studies include forecasted peak loads, and it says a potential RMR unit must have “a meaningful impact on the expected transmission overload” to be considered for an agreement.
“ERCOT filed comments [after the subcommittee vote] that I feel effectively rebutted the comments made by [stakeholders] that they were concerned ERCOT was not being compliant with NERC standards,” said Beth Garza, the IMM’s director.
The Monitor’s revisions would allow ERCOT, “in its sole discretion,” to deviate from the planning criteria “in order to maintain … reliability. However, ERCOT shall present its reasons for deviating from the above criteria at the next regularly scheduled [TAC] and [board] meetings.”
Transmission Providers Opposed
The measure was opposed by transmission providers American Electric Power, CenterPoint Energy, Sharyland Utilities and Luminant, Texas’ largest generating company.
Valentine Emesih, CenterPoint’s vice president of grid and market operations, said the ISO’s approach could create problems in a year or two. “If you force me to operate the line at 110% of [rated capacity], you’re essentially using a policy that forces you to use load shed to upgrade the system,” he said. “The real solution to mitigate the issue is to build appropriate infrastructure to inoculate yourself from that situation, and that’s where the planning comes in.”
ERCOT staff assured stakeholders there were no plans to shed load and there were no reliability issues.
“It’s more about what is the risk this market is comfortable with when deciding whether or not to get an RMR unit,” said Jeff Billo, senior transmission planning manager. “We are going to plan transmission projects to address those issues.”
The transmission providers also lost a bid to revise the planning criteria’s threshold for overloaded transmission facilities to 100% of the emergency rating under normal system conditions following a contingency loss of a generating unit, transmission unit or other facilities. The threshold will instead remain at 110%.
Stakeholders unanimously approved NPRR795, which creates a mechanism to refund capital expenditures funded by ERCOT under an RMR agreement, but not before adding amended language from Texas Industrial Energy Consumers and the ISO.
Attorney Katie Coleman, representing industrial customers, said she wanted to “tighten the parameters around the depreciation assumptions” and compensate customers for the value of accelerated tax depreciation, “which can provide a significant tax write-off for a resource owner.”
Coleman proposed requiring 10% of this value to be repaid along with the capital expenditure before a resource re-enters the market.
“This approach compensates loads for funding a tax write-off for the resource entity in excess of what straight-line depreciation would provide during the RMR contract period,” Coleman said, “but then transfers the value of any accelerated depreciation back to the asset owner after the asset is returned to service.”
ERCOT added language that would only require a signed attestation from a company’s officer or executive, rather than having the ISO audit tax forms.
The TAC also quickly passed the final revision request, NPRR793, by a unanimous vote. It adds several responsibilities for RMR unit owners, revises RMR formulas and makes other clarifications to ensure RMR units are not accidentally committed as a reliability unit before other resources.
Two Transmission Projects Sent to Board
ERCOT stakeholders endorsed staff recommendations for a pair of West Texas reliability projects that address the region’s Permian Basin oilfield load growth without opposition. Reliant Energy Retail Services abstained from both votes.
The first project, estimated at $50.6 million and belonging to Texas-New Mexico Power, will rebuild 39 miles of 69-kV line and three substations to 138-kV standards, and add a new 138-kV ring substation and 6 miles of 138-kV line.
According to ERCOT’s analysis, that portion of the TNMP system will see coincident peak loads of 254 MW by 2022, resulting in reliability violations. The project, expected to go into service in the fall of 2019, would reduce loading on other transmission lines in the utility’s system.
AEP and Oncor proposed the second project, a 138-kV line between Barrilla Junction and the Permian Basin. The 54-mile line’s load is expected to grow from 95 MW to 150 MW by 2020.
Staff recommended a rebuild of the existing line and installing a new 100/-50-MVAR static VAR compensator at an estimated cost of $77 million. The project will not require new rights of way, which will help keep the costs down. It is expected to go into service in June 2019.
Committee Deactivates 4 Groups
The TAC’s annual structural review resulted in the deactivation of four stakeholder groups, agreements to improve the revision-request process and the incorporation of additional binding documents into ERCOT’s protocols and guides.
The committee’s leadership agreed to move the Competitive Renewable Energy Zone Task Force, the Future Ancillary Services Team, the Scenario Development Working Group and the Long-Term Study Task Force to ERCOT’s inactive groups list.
Stakeholders agreed NPRRs and any accompanying guide revisions will now both require board approval, eliminating the discrepancy in the timing of the approval process. NPRRs have normally been approved at the board level, but guide changes are only endorsed by the TAC.
The committee also agreed to incorporate some of ERCOT’s 49 other binding documents — 24 of which have not required frequent changes — into the appropriate guides or protocols, either as new language within existing sections or as appendices.
Additional TAC Endorsements
TAC unanimously approved five NPRRs and one revision to the nodal operating guide (NOGRR) after first agreeing on several refinements to ERCOT’s approval process following the committee’s annual structural review.
NPRR755: Allows an entity to register as a data-agent-only qualified scheduling entity (QSE) to connect to ERCOT’s wide area network (WAN) as an agent for another QSE without meeting applicable collateral and capitalization requirements.
NPRR769: Clarifies the alternative-dispute resolution process to note the proceeding is the next level of appeal following ERCOT’s denial of verifiable costs. Also clarifies the confidentiality of data submitted in connection with a verifiable-cost appeal.
NPRR775: Strengthens the limits on fast responding regulation service (FRRS) to address future operational issues. A previous revision (NPRR581) added limits of 65 MW to FRRS up and 35 MW to FRRS down, but it lacked implementation details regarding self-arrangements in the day-ahead market and restrictions on providing the service in real time without a day-ahead award.
NPRR781: Addresses the market’s growing use of advanced metering systems (AMS) by updating protocol language to clarify purpose and definitions, update processes and methodologies and remove outdated ones.
NPRR789: Requires ERCOT to publish all of its mid-term load forecasts for market participants and note which one is currently being used by operations. The ISO currently publishes several forecasts per weather zone, but it only makes one at a time available to the market.
NOGRR154: Clarifies the WAN’s installation requirements, allows a QSE to designate an agent in order to connect to the WAN and requires ERCOT and its market participants to use the network to exchange resource-specific XML data.
CARMEL, Ind. — MISO began working with stakeholders to refine its behind-the-meter generation procedures last week with a special meeting at which it dropped hints on changes it might seek.
“We have a few ideas, but we want to hear from you,” System Support Resource Planning Manager Neil Shah said in opening the meeting.
“We do realize that [behind-the-meter generation] does span across several MISO processes,” MISO Director of Market Engineering Kim Sperry told stakeholders. “Our goal is to work with you on what the next steps should be.”
MISO staff said BTM generation could be incorporated into transmission planning, modeling and retirement notifications and questioned whether interconnection requirements need updating.
The RTO currently defines BTM generation as load-serving resources located behind a commercial pricing node.
Shah said some — but not all — BTM generation load data is captured when load-serving entities or transmission owners submit load information for planning models.
MISO’s Transmission Expansion Plan (MTEP) studies model generators with interconnection agreements, designated legacy network resources of MISO member utilities and all generators with long-term firm point-to-point service.
Eric Swanson, MISO modeling adviser, said all BTM generators greater than 5 MW and directly connected to MISO transmission are modeled. He said the effort to model all BTM generation could “exceed the benefit.” Swanson said if BTM generation is modeled, it would need to be registered as either a Type II demand response resource (DRR) or under a pricing node of a load zone or a DRR Type I.
Director of Planning Jeff Webb asked if BTM generation should be subjected to retirement studies. Webb said the RTO has about 6,000 MW of BTM generation and said it would be a problem only if it all retired simultaneously. “Perhaps we ought to treat it like a load addition,” he said of the retirement study process. “If generation can go off-grid and we don’t look at the impacts, is that okay?”
MISO also wants to know if changes are needed in how it registers BTM generation.
Currently, if BTM generation wishes to register as a load-modifying resource, it must submit to an annual generator test and registration and get assigned to a commercial pricing node. It must be able to respond in emergencies with a minimum 12-hour notice, be available five times during the summer and run for at least four hours. It also must submit its status daily to MISO.
Shah said if BTM generation wants to become a capacity resource, it needs an energy resource interconnection service (ERIS) or network resource interconnection service (NRIS) with firm transmission service. If the resource isn’t already connected to the MISO transmission system, it must enter the interconnection queue to obtain NRIS.
Indianapolis Power and Light’s Lin Franks said requiring BTM generation to enter the interconnection queue does not make sense when the generation will only serve nearby load. “If it’s going to serve load in your own territory, then there is absolutely no need for it to qualify for transmission service because it’s not going anywhere,” Franks said.
“Things might be unclear in the Tariff right now,” Shah told stakeholders. “In this meeting and meetings going forward, we’d like to clarify what’s required to make changes to the Business Practice Manuals if necessary. We want to work with you all to be if there needs to be any change.”
Justin Stewart of MISO’s stakeholder relations unit asked for stakeholder feedback on how definitions and requirements should evolve. He said responses would influence a yet-unannounced follow-up meeting.
Maxim Power will pay $8 million to settle a FERC complaint that it manipulated the New England power market in a fuel-switching scheme (IN15-4).
FERC alleged that in July and August 2010, the Canadian company submitted offers for its 181-MW dual-fuel generating station in Pittsfield, Mass., based on fuel oil prices when it actually burned less expensive natural gas. The plant provides voltage support to the ISO-NE market.
Pittsfield Plant Source: Maxim Power
Under the consent agreement approved last week with FERC’s Office of Enforcement, Maxim agreed to pay a $4 million fine and disgorge another $4 million in earnings to ISO-NE but did not admit guilt.
FERC issued Maxim a $5 million fine in May 2015 and sued the company in U.S. District Court two months later to collect the money. On July 21, 2016, the court rejected Maxim’s motion to dismiss the case.
The settlement also closes FERC investigations into allegations that the company gamed ISO-NE market mitigation rules in 2012 and 2013 and that it improperly boosted its generators’ outputs during testing in order to collect inflated capacity payments from 2010 to 2013. (See Maxim to FERC: Prosecute or Drop Probe.)
FERC Chairman Norman Bay, the former head of the Office of Enforcement, did not participate in the decision approving the settlement.
BOSTON — New England stakeholders are considering a future market design that could include a price on carbon and a two-tiered capacity market to accommodate state clean energy procurement.
Raab Associates’ 151st New England Electricity Restructuring Roundtable on Friday discussed the New England Power Pool’s effort to reimagine the market, dubbed Integrating Markets and Public Policy (IMAPP).
The initiative comes out of a recognition that the six New England states’ aggressive climate goals don’t align with competitive market structures, said NEPOOL Chairman Joel Gordon.
In a series of ongoing meetings, NEPOOL hopes to develop a framework document by the end of the year that could lead to further discussions in 2017 and eventual changes to the ISO-NE Tariff.
“A concern we have is the scale and scope of what [the states] are doing [with procuring carbon-free energy] that the scale is so large that there’s a fundamental risk to the markets that we have,” he added.
The first challenge is defining the policies — economic development, fuel independence and fuel diversity — and then deciding how much clean energy would be needed to achieve them, given the preferences of the individual states. Next comes market rules that promote the overall policy objectives. Finally, cost allocation among the various constituencies must be decided.
Gordon said 15 proposals have been made in the IMAPP process, which can generally be categorized in “three buckets.”
A carbon adder would be technology-neutral and provide market signals to both supply and demand while also creating a revenue stream for the states.
States’ long-term power purchase agreements for clean energy would support the development of new resources but also support existing generation. “It would be up to the states to decide what they want to procure,” Gordon said.
A second tier to the capacity market would enable states to procure resources while protecting price formation in the Forward Capacity Market. “This is a mechanism that could help to incorporate those solicitations into the current market design without undermining the existing market,” Gordon said.
Robert Ethier, vice president of market operations for ISO-NE, said he could see a hybrid design eventually occurring.
“They’re not mutually exclusive. Conceptually, you could do all three, and some think that’s where we’ll end up,” he said.
Ethier said economists agree that a carbon price is the most efficient means to send market signals and achieve climate goals. “I’ve also been around long enough to know this is probably the least likely of the three to happen,” he added.
But there are other circumstances that will create challenges in the shorter term as the rules evolve.
Low energy prices, even during the recently concluded hot summer, were more than a function of cheap natural gas, he said. The addition of wind and behind-the-meter solar can depress energy prices, which has implications for the capacity market.
“What that means is the resources that we need when the wind isn’t blowing or sun isn’t shining are earning hardly anything to meet their capital costs, operating costs, so they’re just breaking even,” Ethier said. “So that puts more pressure on the capacity market to provide the revenue so they’re able to stay around when we need them.”
The capacity market is also pressured by renewable resources, which benefit from government subsidies like the federal production and investment tax credits, and state renewable portfolio standards, as well as long-term contracts through state-sponsored procurement.
But Katie Dykes, deputy commissioner at the Connecticut Department of Energy and Environmental Protection, said those state policies are needed to encourage clean energy development until market structures are in place.
“Is there a better mousetrap than the states doing procurements?” she asked. “In the near term we have to continue with it, but we’re very open and interested in other ways that we could come up with.”
Arizona Public Service and Puget Sound Energy began transacting in the Western Energy Imbalance Market on Oct. 1, bringing the region’s only real-time market up to five members — including market operator CAISO.
Arizona Public Service and Puget Sound Energy are the newest members to join the Energy Imbalance Market.
The two utilities follow in the footsteps of NV Energy, which entered the market last December, and PacifiCorp, which helped launch the effort in November 2014.
“Participation by Arizona Public Service and Puget Sound Energy in the EIM will strengthen the market and yield substantial benefits in the form of access to low-cost energy for them and for all EIM participants,” CAISO CEO Steve Berberich said in a statement.
The EIM has produced $80 million in economic benefits for its members during the past two years, according to CAISO. Those benefits stem from more efficient inter- and intraregional dispatch in the 15-minute and real-time markets, lower curtailment of renewable energy and reduced need for market participants in all balancing areas to carry flexibility reserves.
Studies commissioned by the utilities indicate that APS could save $7 million to $18 million a year through EIM participation, while PSE could save between $18 million and $30 million.
“Participating in a market that enables APS to buy and sell power closer to when electricity is consumed will result in meaningful economic savings to customers through lower production costs and better integration of renewable resources like solar,” said Tammy McLeod, vice president of resource management at APS, which has transmission connections into both the CAISO and PacifiCorp-East balancing authority areas (BAAs).
PSE’s sole point of connection with the market is via a 300-MW long-term firm transmission reservation on the Bonneville Power Administration system that connects the utility with the PacifiCorp-West balancing authority area.
FERC last week authorized PSE to transact in the EIM at market-based rates, ruling that the company provided sufficient evidence that its limited link would not become constrained frequently enough to create an EIM submarket requiring measures to mitigate market power (ER10-2374).
The commission also directed APS to revise its proposed rules related to how resources external to the EIM can use dynamic scheduling to participate in the market through the utility’s transmission network. (See APS Ordered Again to Revise EIM Dynamic Scheduling Rules.)
Portland General Electric is scheduled to enter the EIM in October 2017, with Idaho Power slated to follow in April 2018.
RENSSELAER, N.Y. — The NYISOReliability Needs Assessment for 2017-2026 identified two transmission security needs beginning next year.
The assessment, which was approved by the Management Committee on Wednesday, identified the risk of thermal overloads on New York State Electric and Gas’ Oakdale 345/115-kV transformer in the Binghamton area and the Long Island Power Authority’s East Garden City-Valley Stream 138-kV line. Generation resources were deemed adequate in the period.
The Oakdale transformer overload was also mentioned in the 2014 assessment. NYSEG responded with plans for a third Oakdale transformer and reconfiguration of the Oakdale 345-kV substation. However, NYSEG has since updated the in-service date of the improvements from 2018 to the winter of 2021, the report said.
The LIPA 138-kV line has a risk of thermal overloads under N-1-1 conditions. “The power flow on this facility is driven by the combination of LIPA load in western Long Island and the scheduled 300-MW wheel between ConEdison and LIPA,” the report said.
Following the NYISO Board of Directors’ approval of the assessment, NYSEG and LIPA will be asked to develop solutions for the two transmission needs. If they are not addressed in their updated Local Transmission Owner Plans, the ISO will solicit solutions from developers.
The proposed solutions will be evaluated in the 2016 Comprehensive Reliability Plan. The RNA is the foundation for the reliability plan, which will be adopted next year.
Until upgrades can be completed, “the use of demand response and operating procedures, including load shedding under emergency conditions, may be necessary to maintain reliability during peak load periods,” the ISO said.
The biennial RNA process assumed the deactivation of the R.E. Ginna and James A. FitzPatrick nuclear plants. Those potential retirements were announced since the last Comprehensive Reliability Plan in 2014.
The plants, with a combined 1,463 MW, may be saved by the Clean Energy Standard adopted by the state’s Public Service Commission in August, which would pay upstate nuclear plants nearly $1 billion for their carbon-free attributes in the first two years of the program.
Systemwide Demand Response Activated
A summer heat wave prompted the first mandatory systemwide DR event in NYISO in three years.
The Aug. 12 event came on the second day of a two-day heat wave, when the peak load was 31,477 MW. NYISO estimated a peak of 32,415 MW if DR had not been activated.
Actual loads were 1,000 MW more than earlier projections for the day and came as neighboring control areas in Ontario and New England were also experiencing high demand. Operating reserves for some time intervals fell below the required 2,620 MW.
The summer’s peak was 32,076 MW on Aug. 11.
“The peak represented the third consecutive year that the NYISO peak fell below the 50/50 forecast,” said Wes Yeomans, NYISO’s operations vice president, who presented the summer 2016 report. The forecasted 50/50 peak was 33,360 MW.
Noteworthy over the two days was the performance of the state’s 1,700 MW of wind resources.
On Aug. 11, wind generation was essentially a flat line of about 50 MW from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. On Aug. 12, as thunderstorm alerts began to move through the state, wind generation topped out at about 600 MW during the afternoon, closely following the rise in demand, which peaked in the 4 p.m. hour.
On July 24, NYISO activated its 21-hour notice for DR for the Lower Hudson Valley, New York City and Long Island, but the ISO did not implement its operation. Rochester Gas & Electric, Con Ed and the New York Power Authority instituted their voluntary DR programs, however.
The last systemwide DR event was during the polar vortex in January 2014 when the voluntary program was activated. The last mandatory DR systemwide event was in July 2013.
SAN DIEGO — Transmission industry owners, operators, generators, regulators, financiers and other key players from the Western U.S. attended Infocast’s 8th annual Transmission Summit West last week. They discussed the strategic, regulatory, investment and technology issues facing the industry.
Western Regionalization
CAISO’sStacy Crowley, vice president of regional and federal affairs, pushed the benefits of ISO participation in her solo presentation, saying, “Utilities and stakeholders have found these ISOs to be valuable, as far as providing cost-effective power.
“We know in the Midwest, states like Iowa could not have reached their renewable standards without an ISO. We’ve seen entities around the Northwest asking if there are efficiencies with a larger market. Clearly, a board appointed by the California governor and approved by the State Senate would not fly in a regional ISO. California clearly has the largest load of any state in the West, but a regional ISO must speak for everyone and their policies.”
ColumbiaGrid CEO Patrick Damiano agreed, but he made the case that coordinating planning doesn’t require a centralized market.
ColumbiaGrid conducts transmission planning and other coordination for its eight members: Avista, Bonneville Power Administration, Chelan County Public Utility District, Grant County PUD, Seattle City Light, Snohomish County PUD, Tacoma Power and Puget Sound Energy, which joined the Western Energy Imbalance Market on Oct. 1.
“The Northwest has always been an active bilateral market,” Damiano said.
“We’ve been very excited about the creation of the EIM,” said Gerald Deaver, manager of regional transmission policy for Xcel Energy. “Our first baby step was FERC’s approval of a joint dispatch area in Colorado [with Platte River Power Authority]. We’ll be the market operator, but we look at it as a way to more efficiently use generation resources in the balancing area. Our ultimate goal is to develop a larger geographic footprint to better integrate renewables. Our hope is that entities will become more comfortable operating in that environment.”
“I can’t imagine all of the West as we know it today would be one RTO. It’s too big. I see two or three RTOs with seams agreements,” SouthWestern Power Group’s Tom Wray said. “For resource management and market efficiency, [RTOs] are clearly a good policy move for the country. One of the motivating factors for expansion of the regional market we know as Cal-ISO is largely coming from regulatory pressure.”
Tanya Bodell, executive director of Energyzt, called for “market-based solutions” to cope with too much generation on the Western system. “West Texas retailers are selling energy for free on nights and weekends. FERC Order 745 has opened up an opportunity for demand to come into the market. I can see 745 creating a mechanism through which system operations encourage people and pay people to use more energy. Generators have a different bid price to operate, versus a bid price to curtail. You may end up getting a curtailment market, where the ISO asks for bids from generators.”
Renewable Integration Remains Sticky Issue
“We’ve done pretty well so far in integrating renewables. We didn’t think 20% would be that easy, but it turned out to be not so much of a challenge,” said Carl Zichella, director of Western transmission for the Natural Resources Defense Council. “We have 38 different balancing authorities in the West. It’s one big grid operating in discrete chunks, rather than an integrated system. While that’s worked so far, we’re going to need to do much better to integrate deeper penetration of wind.
“The worst-case scenario for renewables is what we have now … [balancing authorities] complicating the use of transmission with bilateral contracts and artificial congestion. The biggest hurdle to regionalization is the governmental structure.”
Jay Caspary, SPP’s director of research, development and Tariff studies, said America’s best renewable resources straddle the seam between the Western and Eastern interconnections. While SPP, MISO and ERCOT have built and continue to build transmission to access those resources, the abundance does create a dilemma.
“ERCOT is harvesting thousands of megawatts in SPP’s backyard and pulling them into ERCOT,” he said. “We have two separate independent networks in the Texas Panhandle. At some point, we’ll probably have to integrate those two, but there are a lot of jurisdictional issues.”
In California, rooftop solar is the oncoming train. Jack Moore, director of market analysis for Energy + Environmental Economics, said his company is projecting the state will enjoy 17 to 23 GW of the sunshine resource by 2025. “The big driver we see is in certain hours, California has more solar than it can use. That does set up a reason for [increased] transmission to be able to bring more flexibility to the system.”
“Our experience in Texas is that you build these [interconnection] ties and they get oversubscribed,” said Bill Bojorquez, vice president for Hunt Power. “There are great stranded resources in New Mexico. Sharyland Utilities has over 11 [GW] of generator-interconnection requests. We are literally over-subscribed. It’s one of those stories where if you build it, they’ll be oversubscribed.”
Getting Utilities to Embrace Alternative Technologies
Several speakers complained about the industry’s conservatism.
William White, director of public affairs for CTC Global, said his company has found it difficult winning acceptance of its high-temperature, low-sag, composite core conductors. “We’re in the odd position of having a proven product that works,” he said. “We know it works, our customers know it works, but old habits die hard. Most of [today’s] conductors are literally 100-year-old technology.”
“Some of the biggest resistance to regionalization is the cost,” said Gregg Rotenberg, president of Smart Wires, which provides “grid optimization solutions.”
“If we’re having a conversation about regionalization and we’re only using existing infrastructure, that means we’re using the grid inefficiently,” Rotenberg said. “The hardest group to get involved is the transmission groups at these utilities. When we get them on an equal playing field and we’re spending less on new technologies, we’ll have a new grid.”
Byron Woertz Jr., the Western Electricity Coordinating Council’s manager of system adequacy planning, preferred to see his glass half full. “This a country that put a man on the moon with 20th century technology, so I think we can improve the grid,” he said.
Battery Storage Ready for Prime Time
Asked whether battery storage needs tax credits similar to wind and solar resources, Kiran Kumaraswamy, market development director for AES Energy Storage, said storage is “absolutely ready for prime time.”
“What we really need is a framework to value this class of resources. Four to five years ago, we started talking about the value of solar in a way in which you could bring all those benefits to the table and compare them with all the other options. The gap right now is being able to evaluate [storage] resources on an apples-to-apples basis.”
“I think energy storage works best when paired with other grid assets, to increase the value of the electricity being generated,” said John Jung, CEO of Greensmith Energy Management Systems. “You can do a lot more with electricity when you have the ability to shape the nature of it and the quality of it.”
John Fernandes, RES Americas’ director of policy and market development, said he is not worried about customer migration from the grid. “I’ve been announcing the death spiral of the utility death spiral for years now.”
Non-utilities “are not dealing with NERC violations worth millions of dollars a day,” he said. “When you’re talking about megawatts, [reliability] matters. We’re so highly dependent on this super-reliable service.”
Making FERC Order 1000 Work
A panel sharing their experiences with FERC Order 1000’s directive on competitive transmission projects agreed that CAISO continues to put space between itself and other RTOs with its implementation of the order.
“The evaluation process is certainly evolving. Cal-ISO maybe puts more emphasis on costs and less emphasis on [operations and maintenance], but it’s gotten much better,” said Charlie Adamson, principal manager of major transmission and distribution projects for Southern California Edison. “Every evaluation, they’ve gotten better at it. Things like the EIM or the ultimate experience of an ISO … opens up market availabilities for that energy transfer to make sense. Over time, that could enable long-haul lines that bring in energy from where it’s cheap to where it’s necessary.”
Josh Burkholder, director of transmission asset strategy and grid development for AEP Transmission and Transource Energy, relayed his experiences in SPP’s first competitive process, which resulted in one project being awarded — and then canceled as unneeded. “There were some real head scratchers [in how an industry expert panel graded the projects]. A notch difference in your parent company’s credit rating was a five-point difference [in the scoring]. In a $10 million project, [the credit rating is] pretty irrelevant. Be careful what you wish for a little bit, when it comes to clarity and understanding with how the decision is made.”
“From my standpoint, a lot of things that may not be apparent may become a reliability issues when it’s too late to solve the issue with transmission,” said Bob Smith, vice president of transmission development for TransCanyon, a joint venture of Pinnacle West Capital and Berkshire Hathaway Energy. “This is the second year we’ve had laws in California that are going to require a 50% [renewable portfolio standard], maybe higher, to comply with greenhouse gas laws. Yet, Cal-ISO is relying on a 20% portfolio? It doesn’t make sense for Cal-ISO to be planning when you don’t know where the resources are. By the time Cal-ISO gets clarity on where resources are, we’re coming pretty close to 12 years from the 2030 policy deadline, and you don’t develop transmission in three or four years.”
Speaking of transmission projects in general, Chris Jones, a vice president with Duke-American Transmission Co., said delays in the permitting process “that can happen over the decades-long process” remains “the biggest risk in each of our projects.”
“One of the things that’s changed since I started doing this work is the sensationalism of these projects and the media coverage you get and the protests that come with that. It’s usually local groups, but we’re seeing more and more groups outside the [non-governmental organizations] get media coverage. You’re seeing that now with the North Dakota pipeline project.”
Ali Amirali, a senior vice president with the Starwood Energy Group, called transmission development “a giant game of economic chicken.” He said, “The generation developers are waiting for the transmission to be built. The transmission developers want the generation to be built before getting into the heavy capitalization of transmission.”
California and Massachusetts tied for first place in the 2016 State Energy Efficiency Scorecard published by the American Council for an Energy-Efficient Economy. This is the sixth consecutive year that Massachusetts led the nation.
Missouri, Maine and Michigan were the most-improved states, according to the study. The study identified Louisiana, Kansas, South Dakota, Wyoming and North Dakota as the states most in need of improvement.
“States are spurring efficiency investment through advancements in building energy codes, transportation planning and leading by example in their own facilities and fleets. These investments reap large benefits, giving businesses, governments and consumers more control over how and when they use energy,” said ACEEE Executive Director Steven Nadel.
Utilities: Customers Subsidizing Rooftop Solar Homes
Arizona Public Service and the Salt River Project say that customers who have installed rooftop solar panels on their homes are increasingly burdening those who haven’t.
SRP recently told a local newspaper that its “demand charge” of about $50 on rooftop solar customers was necessary because they weren’t paying their fair share for the energy they consumed from the grid. APS said 96% of its customers pay more than they should because of state subsidies for rooftop solar installations. The utility is seeking a new rate plan from state regulators.
The solar industry in the state disputes these statements. SolarCity is suing SRP over the extra charge, while groups such as the Arizona Solar Energy Industries Association and Solar Strong America say the utilities are trying to undermine net metering in the state.
Water District Installing Largest Public Energy Storage System
The Irvine Ranch Water District is installing a 7-MW, 34-MWh energy storage system using Tesla batteries in what is billed as the largest network of energy storage systems at a public water agency in the U.S.
Irvine Ranch is working with Advanced Microgrid Solutions to install the battery storage system at three water treatment plants, a deep aquifer treatment system, a desalinization plant and six large pumping stations. The district decided on the system after regulators called on utilities and municipalities to install systems to provide power in the event of service interruptions.
“In a region challenged by the closure of the San Onofre Nuclear Generating Station,” Irvine Ranch said. The project will allow it to reduce demand from the grid when requested by the utility without curtailing water treatment operations.
Pacific Gas and Electric last week filed a response to public comments submitted to the Public Utilities Commission on its plan to retire its Diablo Canyon nuclear plant in 2025.
“We fully understand that elements of the joint proposal reflect important issues for the state and PG&E’s customers,” PG&E Electric President Geisha Williams said in a statement. “The near decade-long period ahead of us provides the time to plan and replace Diablo Canyon’s energy with new [greenhouse gas]-free replacement resources.”
The company, which reached a settlement over the plan with employees and environmental groups in August, said it did not expect rates to increase as a result of the closure.
Gov. Jerry Brown signed a bill last week that requires participants in energy efficiency programs for heating and air conditioning to provide proof that their equipment has been properly installed.
“Research shows that many of these projects are not being installed correctly, meaning customers aren’t receiving the energy efficiency savings they paid for and could even be dealing with a significant safety hazard,” said State Sen. Lois Wolk, the bill’s sponsor. Wolk said the bill would also help the state meet its goals to combat climate change.
Brown also signed a package of bills designed to increase transparency and public participation in Public Utilities Commission hearings and proceedings. The bills were written after the deadly explosion of a Pacific Gas and Electric natural gas pipeline revealed off-the-record, private communications between the commission and the companies it regulates.
Construction of a proposed NRG Energy power plant in Oxnard may be delayed after the company made some changes to its design, the state Energy Commission said at a public hearing last week.
NRG decided to change how the plant’s water discharge is routed. The commission said that means it will require more data from the company before it can give final approval to the plant, which has been sited at a local beach. A final staff report was expected by Oct. 14, but that may need to be pushed back, the commission said.
The plant, called the Puente Project, is intended to replace two aging generators in the area.
The Commerce Commission voted unanimously to accept Ameren Illinois’ plan to expand the installation of smart meters to its entire service territory.
Currently, just 330,000 of the company’s 1.2 million customers have smart meters installed. Ameren had originally planned to expand to just 62% of its customers, but the utility decided to expand the program once it found that the meters reduced outages and saved money for both it and its customers.
The Environmental Defense Fund and the Citizens Utility Board both supported the plan. Installations will be completed by 2019.
Former PUB Member: Hydro Customers Facing Giant Rate Hikes
An over-budget transmission project, coupled with increased charges from dam construction, could double rates for Manitoba Hydro customers, according to a former Public Utilities Board member.
Graham Lane, a former PUB chairman and chartered accountant, said mounting debts from the Bipole III transmission line project and the Wuskwatim dam could spur Manitoba Hydro to seek major rate hikes.
“The losses [associated with the projects] are going to be huge,” he said. “By my own calculations, by the time it all ends, Hydro will have lost somewhere in the area of $5 billion to $10 billion, and that money will basically have to be covered by the ratepayers.”
State officials released proposed fracking regulations last week that would ban drilling in three watersheds in Western Maryland and require four layers of steel casing and cement around wells to prevent water, gas and other fluids from migrating.
Environment Secretary Ben H. Grumbles called the proposed regulations “the most stringent” in the country. However, the rules would allow drill sites closer to homes and private wells than proposed by former Gov. Martin O’Malley (D).
The state legislature imposed a moratorium on fracking that is due to expire in October 2017. Environmentalists say they will try next year to make the moratorium permanent.
The Montana Environmental Information Center and Vote Solar filed a complaint with FERC claiming the Public Service Commission violated federal regulations when it suspended payments for energy projects while it reviews standard rates for small solar energy developers.
“That rate has now been taken off the table when projects were in their late stages,” said Brian Fadie, clean energy program director for MEIC. “It undercuts solar development in Montana at the moment.”
A hearing on new rates could come as early as January, PSC spokesman Eric Sell said.
A special legislative committee on climate change is seeking to create a statewide climate action plan — addressing issues such as solar energy and financing energy improvement.
“Some of the public power districts have created their own, what I would say, goals. Nebraska Public Power District, I think their goal is 10%,” state Sen. Ken Haar said. The districts’ goals “are fairly low compared to what other states are doing that actually have energy standards.”
Harr said the committee will issue a report to the Legislature by the end of the year.
Empire Center Critical of PSC’s Clean Energy Standard
The Empire Center for Public Policy has issued a report critical of the Public Service Commission’s Clean Energy Standard, passed in August, which calls for 50% of the state’s energy needs to come from renewable sources by 2030.
The think tank says that rather than subsidizing renewables, the PSC should set greenhouse emission standards and let utilities figure out how to meet them. The group, which promotes “free-market principles [and] personal responsibility,” also maintains that the cost of ramping up renewables will exceed the $2/month rate increase that the commission predicted and that it underestimated the difficulty of switching to solar and wind power.
PSC spokesman Jon Sorensen defended the plan. “Rather than support bold national leadership to combat the very real threat of climate change, this right-wing think tank denies reality and relies on bogus cost assumptions to argue for inaction,” Sorensen said in a prepared statement.
Long Island has seen a 320% growth in solar energy over the past four years and just completed its 35,000th solar energy project, Gov. Andrew Cuomo announced.
Long Island, which is part of NY-Sun, the $1 billion initiative launched by Cuomo to advance the solar industry and create jobs, now saves 200,000 tons of carbon emissions per year.
“Clean energy is our future, and Long Island is leading the state in growing our clean tech economy and achieving our climate change goals,” Cuomo said.
Two Sides Clash over Environmental Justice Reports
State regulators and environmentalists are clashing over reports that say new coal ash landfills at Duke Energy’s Sutton Plant in Wilmington and Dan River plant in Eden won’t unfairly affect anyone based on age, race, income or language.
The findings were the first two environmental justice reports issued by state regulators since announcing in April that they would start requiring environmental justice reviews before issuing permits.
Therese Vick, a community organizer with the Blue Ridge Environmental Defense League, said the reviews are not worth much because there is no mechanism to deny a permit on environmental justice grounds. “It’s an empty process,” she said.
Duke Energy Progress is seeking to build a new 230-kV transmission line in Bladen County that would connect Innovative Solar’s new 40-MW solar power facility in Bladen County to Duke’s existing Cumberland to Delco 230-kV transmission line in Bladen County.
In its September application filed with the Utilities Commission, Duke said it will build a 230-kV breaker station adjacent to a new substation that Innovative Solar plans to build adjacent to the Cumberland to Delco 230-kV line.
The Power Sitting Board has given approval to Boston-based Advanced Power Services for a $1.1 billion, 1,105-MW natural gas-fired power plant in eastern Ohio.
The plant is expected to begin operating in January 2020.
Kasich Threatens Veto of Any Bill Killing Clean Energy Standards
Kasich
Gov. John Kasich threatened to veto any legislation eliminating standards for renewable energy and energy efficiency, which could be a bad sign for proposals pending in the General Assembly.
Two years ago, Kasich placed a freeze on standards requiring electricity utilities to meet annual benchmarks for renewable energy and to help customers reduce energy use. The freeze will expire soon, and not all lawmakers would like to see it extended.
Pacific Power announced last week that four solar power projects in central and southern Oregon from which it acquired future renewable energy credits would not be completed until the first quarter of 2017.
The company previously expected the developer, Coronal Development, to complete the projects by year-end.
If Coronal misses its completion date, it is contractually obligated to pay Pacific the difference if it has to buy power at a higher cost on the energy market.
A dispute is raging in the state between drillers and landowners, who claim they are being cheated out of royalty payments for gas extracted from their land.
Although a 1979 law mandates a landowner royalty of at least 12.5% of the value of the gas, there are disputes over how the gas should be valued. Landowners contend they are entitled to 12.5% of what the gas sells for, while drillers say the proper calculation is market price, less post-production deductions for transportation and processing.
State lawmakers are scheduled to take up the issue Tuesday with a procedural vote on a bill that would prevent deductions from reducing landowner royalties to below the 12.5% state minimum.
Supreme Court Strikes Down Pro-Industry Drilling Law Provisions
The state Supreme Court last week struck down provisions of a 2012 law allowing state utility regulators to punish municipalities financially if they enact drilling rules stricter than state law.
The provisions generally had not been used, but the decision gives municipalities “breathing room” to enact tougher ordinances on the natural gas industry, said Jordan Yeager, an attorney for the Delaware Riverkeeper Network.
The high court also struck down two other provisions of the law. One pertained to a so-called “medical gag” rule; the other was characterized by one justice as illegal eminent domain for a private purpose.
State’s Pipeline Infrastructure not Keeping Pace with Gas Production
The state’s 60,000 miles of pipeline infrastructure is not keeping pace with natural gas production, industry leaders said in a conference call last week that addressed future gas pipeline expansion.
Some 25 to 30% of the state’s wells do not have full takeaway capacity, said Stephanie Catarino Wissman, executive director of Associated Petroleum Industries of Pennsylvania. The lack of pipeline infrastructure is hurting production from the Marcellus and Utica shales, Wissman said.
Pierre, state and company officials held a ribbon cutting ceremony last week for the state’s largest solar project, which has begun generating power under a testing period before it starts feeding the grid Oct. 7.
The $2 million, 1-MW facility is a joint venture between Pierre, Geronimo Energy and Missouri River Energy Services. It is located on about nine acres near the city’s airport. The companies chose Pierre because of easy access to a substation and available land that could not be used to grow crops.
With 4,280 panels, the facility only took two months to build, an MRES official said.
McAuliffe Rejects Calls To Kill Atlantic Coast Pipeline
Amid protests from residents and environmentalists, Gov. Terry McAuliffe said last week that he lacks the authority to cancel construction of Dominion Resources’ Atlantic Coast Pipeline — and wouldn’t do so even if he could.
“I as governor do not have the right to call down to the Department of Environmental Quality and say, ‘Well I don’t like this,’” McAuliffe said on a local radio station. “I cannot deny an air and water permit as governor. I don’t have the authority. It’s done by statute. If you don’t like the regs and they get approved, then you need to talk to the legislature to change the law.” But the governor also said he supports the project, arguing that it will create jobs and is a safer alternative to transporting gas by train.
McAuliffe’s remarks come as about 150 people attended a public hearing of the Buckingham County Planning Commission to voice to their opposition to the pipeline. Because of the large turnout, the commission extended the public comment period to Oct. 17. The Chesapeake Climate Action Network is also planning a three-day protest outside the Executive Mansion in Richmond.
The state’s big gas utilities are filing legal challenges to a recent Department of Ecology rule that requires about two dozen large industrial emitters of greenhouse gases to reduce their carbon emissions by an average of 1.7% annually.
The rule applies to the state’s five oil refineries, Puget Sound Energy gas facilities in Sumas, Longview and Goldendale, and other large emitters, including the Grays Harbor Energy Center in Elma.
“Washington’s natural gas utilities believe that reducing greenhouse gas emissions is a matter that needs addressing, but the [Clean Air Rule] is not the solution,” Avista said in a statement.
Mayors, Consumer Groups Protest FirstEnergy Plant Sale
More than a dozen groups, including city officials, energy efficiency organizations, natural gas companies and consumer advocates, have sent a letter to the Public Service Commission to protest FirstEnergy’s sale of the Pleasants power plant to one of its subsidiaries.
The groups say FirstEnergy is trying to save the money-losing coal plant by selling it to either Mon Power or Potomac Edison, which can get a guaranteed rate of return for the plant’s power. They told the PSC the utilities should bid for the lowest cost power, and that FE should have to prove selling the plant to one of the utilities is the most affordable option for consumers.
Fitch downgraded the state’s credit rating from AA+ to AA, citing the failing coal industry and a slump in profitability from natural gas.
The agency did note the growth in the service, transportation and warehousing industries, but they were not enough to buoy the state’s economy, which still relies heavily on coal. The state is also steadily losing its population to other states, Fitch said.
“We must work continually to diversify our economy through projects like the Hobet mine site redevelopment, while also maintaining a balanced, smart budget without irresponsible cuts to critical programs,” Gov. Earl Ray Tomblin said.
Legislative Committee Kills Wind Production Tax Increase
A state legislative committee voted down a proposed increase on the state’s wind energy production tax, the only such tax in the country.
The legislature has been seeking a way to close a multimillion-dollar budget shortfall, caused in part by a decline in revenue from the fossil fuel industries. But after hearing five hours of testimony from wind companies and local communities, the committee voted against moving forward a bill that would have raised the wind tax from $1/MWh to $3. Everyone who spoke at the hearing on the bill was against it.
Rep. Michael Madden, a committee co-chair, supported the bill, pointing to a new wind project that would have raised $40 million alone. The state is facing a gap of $200 million. “I don’t know what we’re going to do now,” Madden said.
In an industry where grid operators often engage in bickering and litigation over their borders, ERCOT and SPP have proven neighbors can also collaborate for the common good.
The grid operators’ in-house developers have worked together to produce version 2.0 of the Macomber Map, a visualization tool for control rooms. Projected on large overhead monitors, the map provides a geographical depiction of the system, including customizable views of power flows, constraints and other core system data that feed into the map and are then pieced together.
“As we collaborate on the software, we’re supporting each other,” said Mike Legatt, ERCOT’s principal “human factors engineer.” Legatt says the Macomber Map improves operators’ decision-making by increasing their situational awareness and simplifying the complexity wrought by integrating renewable resources, changes in market design and faster information flows.
“Our experience … is a great illustration of a new way of thinking, both about the relationships between technology and grid reliability and between independent grid operators like ERCOT and SPP,” said Cody Parker, SPP’s supervisor of operations support. “The adoption rate of users has been tremendous. It’s been clear that the … user-friendliness of the tool, the performance and responsiveness of the tool … those aspects have won over all the operators.”
Seeing the ‘Big Picture’
The system is named in honor of its creator, ERCOT’s Gary Macomber, a human factors engineer who died in August 2008, a few weeks before his first map became a production-level tool.
“Gary was really an incredible guy. He could see the big picture,” Legatt said. “This was the one [project] he was really excited about, because it’s pulling together disparate data from people who gather it. By doing all that work for the operators, it gives them more time and more mental bandwidth to be solving these problems.”
Legatt Source: ERCOT
“It’s opened up a whole new visualization framework without having to go through the physical process of drawing things pixel by pixel,” said SPP senior engineer Jeff Parker (no relation to Cody). “We’ve been able to use modern graphics-rendering capabilities built into it, instead of the old style of manually drawing everything.”
Legatt was behind the code for the map’s first version. However, he’s quick to say it’s the control room operators who developed the map.
“It’s all the users — operators, engineers and other groups within our organization — that have really defined how the tool grew and developed into what it is today,” he said.
In 2013, ERCOT released the code to the open source community for adoption by other users, such as governments, utilities and emergency responders who could benefit from improved situational awareness. The code has also been picked up by power-flow engineering students.
That led to version 2.0, which has an improved graphical user interface, among other upgrades.
Legatt credits SPP’s developers and operators for the new features. SPP staff tailored the tool to aggregate and analyze historical and real-time data from their energy management, markets, weather and other systems. The grid operators said SPP’s improvements enable operators to run what-if scenarios to monitor and mitigate congestion and outages.
“They’ve done some incredible work,” Legatt said of SPP. “They are showing things we were already showing, but in a better way. The graphical rendering is much nicer and much faster. It works better in remote-access situations … all thanks to Cody and his team.”
Human Factors Engineering
Cody Parker and his team became interested in Legatt’s work on human performance improvement through mutual industry contacts. Human factors engineering, also known as cognitive ergonomics or user-centered design, combines psychology and engineering.
Parker spent several months talking with Legatt, who has two master’s degrees and a doctorate in clinical health and neuropsychology. He recently defended his thesis in pursuit of a second doctorate from the University of Texas at Austin in energy systems engineering.
Once SPP’s Integrated Marketplace went live in 2014, Parker and his team were able to devote their full energy to adapting the map for their use.
Parker (l) and an unknown fellow SPP employee Source: SPP
“Working with Mike Legatt has been an absolute pleasure. It’s the key to our success and the ongoing coding,” Jeff Parker said. “He brings a whole new layer of ideas and questions … as we implement a requirement.”
After Legatt joined ERCOT in 2006, Macomber asked him to sit with ERCOT’s operators so he could understand their needs. “It became even more clear why we needed this tool,” Legatt said.
ERCOT began using the map’s first release in its training exercises in 2009, allowing its operators and those of market participants to visualize system restoration in black-start exercises and other scenarios.
Woody Rickerson, the ISO’s vice president of grid planning and operations, says he has seen performance continue to improve in training exercises. “That tells us those operators are even more prepared for success in real-life situations,” he said.
‘Eye-Opening’ Visit
Cody Parker visited ERCOT during one of the black-start exercises. Seeing the training was “very eye-opening,” he said.
Parker and his team took the code back to SPP and, after six months of development, integrated the tool with its other systems. The RTO has been using the map in its operations since March and recently began using it to train all of their operators. Parker’s team is now working on making the tool available to SPP’s external training department.
“We were able to take the users’ feedback and quickly apply it,” Parker said. “More often than not, that enhanced development was available for the [next] round of trainers. That was one of the huge advantages of going with the open-source solution.”
“The nice thing about using a product we have the source code for is we can go in and make things the way we need to make them work. Using a vendor’s tool, we just couldn’t go in and make any changes we wanted,” said SPP’s Tim Van Prooyen, a senior operations programmer and analyst.
One of the tool’s other advantages is that its updated rendering makes it easier to run on virtual machines — programs that emulate dedicated hardware.
“Before, you needed a physical machine on each person’s desk, but now you can [use] virtual systems without dedicated video graphics cards. Any user can pretty much use it on any machine, remote and on-site,” Parker said.
“The only thing we ask is if they find out ways to make it better … to let us know about it,” Legatt said. “One of the benefits of open sourcing the map and building these kinds of collaborations is that different parties need different things. So every enhancement they make that flows back to the open-source community benefits everybody else, moving us all to a better place.”
“This one project has opened the doors in multiple aspects,” Jeff Parker said. “It’s been much more of an exchange of ideas beyond the Macomber Map.”
Asked what version 3.0 might look like, Legatt promises it will be exciting. “The best thing is this collaboration with SPP. We have proven to ourselves this philosophy works.”
The Macomber Map’s source code and more information can be found here. Legatt said he and others can provide additional information and training support to help others customize the map to serve their own needs.
Missouri, Maine and Michigan were the most-improved states, according to the study. The study identified Louisiana, Kansas, South Dakota, Wyoming and North Dakota as the states most in need of improvement.
Arizona Public Service and the Salt River Project say that customers who have installed rooftop solar panels on their homes are increasingly burdening those who haven’t.
The Irvine Ranch Water District is installing a 7-MW, 34-MWh energy storage system using Tesla batteries in what is billed as the largest network of energy storage systems at a public water agency in the U.S.
Pacific Gas and Electric last week filed a response to public comments submitted to the Public Utilities Commission on its plan to retire its Diablo Canyon nuclear plant in 2025.
Construction of a proposed NRG Energy power plant in Oxnard may be delayed after the company made some changes to its design, the state Energy Commission said at a public hearing last week.
The Commerce Commission voted unanimously to accept Ameren Illinois’ plan to expand the installation of smart meters to its entire service territory.
An over-budget transmission project, coupled with increased charges from dam construction, could double rates for Manitoba Hydro customers, according to a former Public Utilities Board member.
The Montana Environmental Information Center and Vote Solar filed a complaint with FERC claiming the Public Service Commission violated federal regulations when it suspended payments for energy projects while it reviews standard rates for small solar energy developers.
State regulators and environmentalists are clashing over reports that say new coal ash landfills at Duke Energy’s Sutton Plant in Wilmington and Dan River plant in Eden won’t unfairly affect anyone based on age, race, income or language.
Pacific Power announced last week that four solar power projects in central and southern Oregon from which it acquired future renewable energy credits would not be completed until the first quarter of 2017.
The state’s 60,000 miles of pipeline infrastructure is not keeping pace with natural gas production, industry leaders said in a conference call last week that addressed future gas pipeline expansion.
Pierre, state and company officials held a ribbon cutting ceremony last week for the state’s largest solar project, which has begun generating power under a testing period before it starts feeding the grid Oct. 7.
Amid protests from residents and environmentalists, Gov. Terry McAuliffe said last week that he lacks the authority to cancel construction of Dominion Resources’ Atlantic Coast Pipeline — and wouldn’t do so even if he could.
More than a dozen groups, including city officials, energy efficiency organizations, natural gas companies and consumer advocates, have sent a letter to the Public Service Commission to protest FirstEnergy’s sale of the Pleasants power plant to one of its subsidiaries.
itch downgraded the state’s credit rating from AA+ to AA, citing the failing coal industry and a slump in profitability from natural gas.
