Impressive reliability track record for Clark Public Utilities reflects utility-wide focus
August 24, 2020
by Paul Ciampoli
APPA News Director
August 24, 2020
Washington state public power utility Clark Public Utilities has developed an impressive track record when it comes to reliability and keeping power outages to a minimum.
“I think there’s really a commitment from the top down within the whole utility to keep service interruptions at a minimum and, when they do happen, to get them fixed as quickly as possible,” said Ryan Kerr, Manager of Systems Engineering and Planning at Clark Public Utilities, in an Aug. 14 interview with the American Public Power Association.
More specifically, Kerr noted that there is a “big commitment” from Clark Public Utilities when it comes to proactive vegetation management, which is done on a three-year cycle. In addition, the utility also utilizes tree wire in spots where tree trimming is difficult.
Kerr also highlighted the utility’s infrastructure monitoring and service crew protocols as substantial drivers behind the short response times. “I think the fact that we have a 24-hour dispatch center, and servicemen out there on patrol all the time who are ready at a moment’s notice when the dispatchers report an incident,” helps with power restoration efforts.
Dameon Pesanti, Media Specialist at Clark Public Utilities, emphasized the point that the utility has “built a culture of the customer’s interest above all else. We’re owned by them so we want to provide them the best service.”
Starting with the CEO of Clark Public Utilities, “down to our part-time employees,” the focus on reliability is front and center across the utility, Pesanti said. When power outages occur, “everybody jumps on it to get the lights back on and keep customers informed.”
Clark Public Utilities recognized by APPA
Earlier this year, Clark Public Utilities received a “Diamond” level designation from APPA under APPA’s Reliable Public Power Provider (RP3) program. The Diamond level is the highest level of RP3 recognition.
The program recognizes utilities that demonstrate high proficiency in reliability, safety, workforce development, and system improvement. Utilities keep the RP3 designation for three years.
“Reliability and safety are the priority in all areas of operation in this utility,” Lena Wittler, CEO/General Manager of Clark Public Utilities, said in April. “The RP3 review thoroughly examines the practices and measures implemented across the organization to support those priorities. The fact that we’ve earned the highest level of recognition, with a rarely achieved perfect score, is a reflection of our ongoing commitment to delivering outstanding service, consistently and professionally.”
“I’m always excited to see exceptional reliability at public power utilities,” said Alex Hofmann, Vice President, Engineering Services, at APPA. “Keeping the lights on represents a huge value to the commercial, industrial, and residential customers serviced by Clark PUD.”
A recent article in the Battle Ground, Washington-based newspaper The Reflector notes that the average number of power outages a customer experienced in 2018 was 1.65. For Clark Public Utilities customers the average was 0.43, the newspaper reported.
In his interview with APPA, Kerr said that in 2016, the public power utility started to focus on Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) indices “and bringing those to the table.”
Clark Public Utilities for a long time has had an internal goal program with set metrics for reliability, cost-control and customer satisfaction. The reliability goal uses measures similar to the System Average Interruption Duration Index (SAIDI) with average time a utility customer is out of power during a specified timeframe, and employees watch the progress against the goal as a measure of success.
Kerr noted that one of the tools that Clark Public Utilities utilizes to minimize outages is remote device control. This helps in situations such that when there is an outage, “dispatch can participate in the switching order along with the servicemen out in the field, so it helps our restoration time and adds to the number of eyes on the system.”
Substations
Washington has the second-highest risk in the U.S. of large and damaging earthquakes because of its geologic setting, according to the Washington Geological Survey. Kerr noted that when it comes to substations, Clark Public Utilities takes a long-term approach in terms of things like seismic upgrades and “installing a lot of flexible connections between devices.” Clark Public Utilities has also taken steps to tie down its power transformers.
“We think we’ll be able to get through our system in the next five years or so. We’re not trying to get so it’s going to be a hundred percent ride through, but anything we can do ahead of time to provide for a better restoration time following a seismic event is what the utility is aiming for,” Kerr said.
With respect to specific projects, he noted that Clark Public Utilities is working to replace its oldest substation near Washington’s border with Oregon along the Columbia River.
Along with the substation’s age (constructed in 1964), Kerr noted that another factor driving this project is a new $1.5 billion waterfront development project, so “we need a little extra capacity out of there.” The project is in downtown Vancouver, Washington.
The substation project, which is tied into two transmission lines, will help boost reliability by compensating for times when one of the lines experiences an outage. “In the past, it wasn’t really set up that way. We’ll have some duel redundancy” into the future for a large chunk of customers in the downtown Vancouver area, he said.
NWPP taps Southwest Power Pool to design its resource adequacy program
August 11, 2020
by Peter Maloney
APPA News
August 12, 2020
Northwest Power Pool (NWPP) has hired Southwest Power Pool (SPP) to develop a resource adequacy program for a set of 18 member utilities.
Public power participants in the RA program are the Bonneville Power Administration, the Balancing Area of Northern California (with its member, the Sacramento Municipal Utility District),
Chelan Public Utility District (PUD), Douglas PUD, Eugene Water and Electric Board, Grant PUD, Seattle City Light, Snohomish PUD, Tacoma Power and Turlock Irrigation District.
“Over the last few years, there have been several forecasts indicating shortfalls in resources relative to peak load in the 2020-2025 timeframe,” Frank Afranji, NWPP president, said via email. “These forecasts have created a strong incentive for utilities to work together to identify the regional resource adequacy needs.”
Over 5,000 megawatts of gas-fired generation were built in the Northwest between 2001 and 2010, but that pace has slowed recently. Only four gas plants, totaling 1,100 MW, have come online since 2011, according to an October 2019 NWPP report.
In recent years, many utilities in the region switched from building new generating resources to purchasing power through the wholesale market, and renewable development has been increasing. As of 2019, the Northwest had 450 MW of grid-scale solar power resources and 9,400 MW of wind power. Meanwhile, nearly 2,000 MW of coal-fired generating capacity in the Northwest is expected to retire by 2023 with another 1,500 MW expected to retire by 2029, according to the report.
Coal retirements combined with load growth could lead to capacity shortages as soon as this year and, by the mid-2020s, the region could face a capacity deficit of thousands of megawatts, leading to the risk of “extraordinary price volatility” and “unacceptable loss-of-load,” the report says.
The scope of SPP’s work for NWPP is expected to last through 2020 and will span the design phase of resource adequacy program development.
SPP will work with the NWPP and its participating member utilities to expand and refine the preliminary program design into a comprehensive resource adequacy program.
When the resource adequacy program is fully designed, NWPP members plan to conduct a competitive solicitation for a program administrator to implement and run the resource adequacy program.
“Southwest Power Pool has direct experience developing and running a resource adequacy program across multiple states and the skill set to help us determine key program design features to achieve the reliability objectives of the RA program,” Afranji said in a statement. “The program we are developing will be available to participants with different needs and interests across a wide swath of the West and we believe SPP’s multi-state RA program experience will help us develop a program that provides benefits for all participants as well as the region.”
The resource adequacy program would be voluntary to join, but once an entity has joined, they are obligated to fulfill the commitments under the program, Afranji said.
“Enforcement under the program is a design element that has not yet been defined,” he added.
APPA, Other Groups Ask Court To Review FCC 6 GHz Report And Order
July 30, 2020
by Paul Ciampoli
APPA News Director
Posted July 30, 2020
The American Public Power Association, the Utilities Technology Council (UTC) and National Rural Electric Cooperative Association (NRECA) on July 27, asked the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit to review a Federal Communications Commission (FCC) Report and Order (R&O) to open the 6 GHz band of spectrum to unlicensed usage.
The FCC issued its R&O to open the 6 GHz band of spectrum to unlicensed usage in May, which went into effect July 27.
The R&O allows two types of unlicensed operations, low powered indoor use and outdoor use protected with automated frequency coordination technology.
APPA, along with a broad coalition of incumbent license holders, offered extensive comments during the R&O consideration raising concerns regarding interference to operations that could result from opening the band to unlicensed users and requesting further testing and protections from the FCC.
The petition seeks review by the court that the FCC R&O violates the Administrative Procedures Act “on the grounds that it is arbitrary, capricious, and an abuse of discretion.”
The petition asks the court to hold that the FCC’s R&O unlawfully authorizes unlicensed low power indoor operations without sufficient safeguards to prevent harmful interference to licensed operations.
APPA, UTC and NRECA also want the court to hold that the FCC was arbitrary and capricious in failing to adequately consider studies on the record that show that unlicensed operations will cause harmful interference to licensed systems.
In addition, the court should vacate those portions of the R&O it finds to be arbitrary and capricious or otherwise unlawful or defective, the petition said.
The court should also remand to the FCC for proceedings consistent with the court’s findings and/or “provide such other relief as the court deems appropriate.”
No timetable has been set by the court, but it is unlikely the court will hear the case before 2021 at the earliest.
In recent joint comments submitted to the FCC, APPA and several other trade groups argued that the FCC should refrain from further expansion of unlicensed operations in the 6 GHz band “until such time that additional testing has been conducted to prove that unlicensed operations will not cause harmful interference to licensed microwave systems.”
Rapid Growth Prompts CPS Energy To Move Ahead With Substation Plans
July 10, 2020
by Peter Maloney
APPA News
Posted July 10, 2020
CPS Energy, the public power utility serving San Antonio, Texas, is moving ahead with plans for two substations designed to meet the needs of the growing metropolitan area.
CPS Energy held an open house in September 2019 with area residents to discuss its planned Midtown substation on a site just north of downtown San Antonio. The utility purchased the property for the substation in March and is now finalizing design aspects to ensure that construction begins in summer 2021.
In October 2019, CPS Energy held a public open house for its planned Scenic Loop substation project, which is sited near Boerne outside of San Antonio city limits. Because the substation and associated transmission project are outside city limits, the utility will need approval by the Public Utility Commission of Texas (PUCT) in the form of an amendment to CPS Energy’s Certificate of Convenience and Necessity (CCN) to own and operate transmission facilities within Texas.
For the past several months, CPS Energy has been preparing its application to submit to the PUCT this summer. The utility said the application would include alternative locations for the planned substation, as well as alternate routes for the associated transmission line.
Landowners close to the alternative substation sites and transmission line routes will have an opportunity to participate in the PUC’s consideration of the project. Following PUCT approval, CPS Energy will be required to pass a Board resolution and obtain a city ordinance enabling it to acquire the land needed for the chosen route and substation.
CPS Energy anticipates a June 2022 start date for construction of the Scenic Loop project with a January 2024 completion date.
The design calls for two 138-kV/35-kV, 100 MVA transformers that would be installed in two phases. The timing of the second phase has not been determined.
The proposed Midtown project calls for gas-insulated switchgear and a three-unit substation with one initial 138/13 kV transformer and 13 kV 4-feeder distribution switchgear. The substation will connect to CPS Energy’s existing Comal-to-Olmos 138-kV transmission line by two single-circuit transmission lines with a total length of about 0.07 mile. The project is scheduled to be in service by January 2023.
The Midtown substation is designed to provide additional electric capacity to support community growth and to improve the reliability of electric service in the area. CPS Energy’s forecast shows that load in the area will equal the existing electrical capacity by 2024.
CPS Energy completed another substation, Southton, in April 2020 and is working on another, the Shepherd Road substation and transmission line, slated for completion in November 2020.
San Antonio expects to add 1 million inhabitants to its population by 2040, according to SA Tomorrow, the city’s initiative for economic development and long term planning.
“Our goal has always been to provide safe, reliable, environmentally friendly services to Greater San Antonio,” LeeRoy Perez, Senior Director, Substation and Transmission, for CPS Energy, said. “The COVID-19 pandemic has not stopped us from making sure our fast-growing city and our customers in our service area, both inside and outside the San Antonio city limits, have the services they need.”
APPA, Other Groups Urge FCC Not To Further Expand Unlicensed Operations In 6 GHz Band
July 10, 2020
by Paul Ciampoli
APPA News Director
Posted July 10, 2020
In recent joint comments submitted to the Federal Communications Commission (FCC), the American Public Power Association and several other trade groups argue that the FCC should refrain from further expanding unlicensed operations in the 6 GHz band “until such time that additional testing has been conducted to prove that unlicensed operations will not cause harmful interference to licensed microwave systems.”
APPA and the other groups submitted the June 29 comments in response to a Further Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (FNPRM) related to the unlicensed use of the 6 GHz band.
Along with APPA, the other groups joining in the comments were the National Rural Electric Cooperative Association (NRECA), American Gas Association (AGA), American Water Works Association (AWWA) and the Utilities Technology Council (UTC).
The FCC issued a Report and Order (R&O) to open the 6 GHz band of spectrum to unlicensed usage back in May. The rules will go into effect on July 27.
The R&O allows two types of unlicensed operations, low powered indoor use and outdoor use with automated frequency coordination (AFC) technology.
The FCC asserts that these are tailored to protect incumbent services that operate in distinct parts of the 6 GHz band.
However, despite the objections of a number of parties, including incumbent license holders and federal agencies regarding the lack of adequate protection from interference afforded in the underlying R&O, the FCC’s FNPRM seeks to go further by allowing more unlicensed operations in the band.
The FNPRM sought comments on whether to further permit unlicensed devices, operating both indoors and outdoors, across the entire band at power levels low enough to prevent interference to licensed services and whether to allow for unlicensed access points that are restricted to indoor operation to operate at a power level over what is set by the R&O.
In addition, the FNPRM sought comments on whether to permit access points that operate under the control of an AFC system in two sub-bands (the 5.925-6.425 GHz and 5.512-6.875 GHz) for mobile applications.
APPA, other groups weigh in
The groups pointed out that two years have passed since the FCC initiated this rulemaking proceeding. During that time frame, the Commission received numerous comments in opposition and studies that showed the impacts interference will have on critical infrastructure from unlicensed usage.
“Now, less than two months after adopting its Report and Order, the Commission proposes additional rules and invites comments on expanding unlicensed operations in the 6 GHz band. At best, this is premature without further experience in a real-world environment; at worst, it recklessly disregards the risk to critical safety and control systems that allow utilities to safely, reliably and securely deliver electric, gas and water services to 330 million Americans.”
Loss of energy and water utility services “can have widespread effects on public safety, the economy, and national security. Moreover, it will affect not only utilities; it will affect any critical infrastructure industry and public safety agency that relies on the 6 GHz band for mission critical communications,” APPA and the others said in their comments.
The groups said that the FCC should refrain from very low power authorization across the band until testing has been done and real world impacts has been determined regarding current operations. Further, the Commission should not allow an increase in the power level for low power indoor devices because it further increases the probability of harmful interference.
In addition, APPA and the other groups said that authorization of both mobile standard-power devices or higher power standard-power devices should not be allowed because the Commission itself recognizes the potential they create for interference, and specifically for mobile devices, the greater complexity they create for an effective AFC.
The groups also said that the FCC should engage with a multi-stakeholder group to ensure the “the development of effective solutions for the implementation of AFC to protect licensed microwave systems and resolve instances of interference and to test low power indoor devices prior to commercial deployment to ensure that they will not cause interference to licensed microwave systems.”
NERC’s Robb Praises Power Industry’s Response to Pandemic
July 8, 2020
by Paul Ciampoli
APPA News Director
Posted July 8, 2020
The power sector deserves “a tremendous amount of credit” for the way in which it has responded to the COVID-19 pandemic, said Jim Robb, President and CEO of the North American Electric Reliability Corporation, in a recent interview with the American Public Power Association.
“I think you have to sit back and give the electric industry a tremendous amount of credit for the way it reacted to this situation,” Robb said.
Robb noted that the Electricity Subsector Coordinating Council (ESCC), which serves as the principal liaison between the federal government and the electric power industry on national level response issues such as pandemics, “really has a very effective process.”
In the wake of the pandemic’s emergence, the ESCC playbook was activated in March. The playbook provides senior industry and government executives with a framework to coordinate response and recovery efforts and communication with the public during major incidents.
“It’s hard to remember now, but if you go back to the March timeframe this was evolving very, very quickly,” Robb noted. The ESCC held meetings twice a week “just so everybody knew what was going on, could share their experiences,” and learn from each other, he said.
Moreover, the meetings also provided an opportunity to hear updates from the Department of Homeland Security, the Department of Energy and, on occasion, the Department of Health and Human Services “as to what was actually going on.”
The ESCC also formed “Tiger Teams” in order to start to identify and address cross-cutting issues across the energy industry, Robb noted.
The ESCC’s COVID-19 Resource Guide, which is a living document developed under the direction of the ESCC, has been updated and distributed regularly by the ESCC Secretariat, based on input from Tiger Teams. Version 9 of the guide was released in late June.
In talking with one of his Board of Trustee members who’s very involved with the water sector, that official said he was “blown away by” the resource guide, Robb said. “He said this was so far beyond what we’ve seen,” the NERC President and CEO said.
“I think that’s just an example of how well the electric sector can come together when it needs to,” Robb said.
The ESCC resource guide has been updated with the input of the American Public Power Association and public power utilities.
Members of the ESCC Steering Committee include Robb and Joy Ditto, President and CEO of APPA.
Meanwhile, along with its work with the ESCC in response to the pandemic, NERC has also joined with the North American Transmission Forum, the DOE and the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission to jointly develop a pandemic planning guide.
The resource focuses on planning/preparedness, response, and recovery activities for a severe epidemic/pandemic.
The first version of the planning guide was published in May and the second version was published in mid-June.
E-ISAC issued all-points bulletin to industry
Robb noted that in the early part of 2020, NERC’s Electricity Information Sharing and Analysis Center issued an all-points bulletin to industry related to the pandemic.
The initial concern was focused on the supply chain, Robb said, given that so many electronic components are made in China. At the same time, E-ISAC asked industry to “dust off their pandemic plans” and identify key workers.
The power sector has been proactively thinking about how to address pandemics for quite some time. The electricity sector came up with a pandemic plan 10 years ago, which was part of a High Impact Low Frequency (HILF) event plan development. In 2010, sector entities were urged to review their pandemic and business continuity plans to incorporate lessons learned from the 2009 A/H1N1 outbreak and consider much worse scenarios.
Meanwhile, Robb said that the COVID-19 pandemic brought the DHS, DOE and E-ISAC together “in ways, at least in my time here, we haven’t worked together as well as we have over the last three to four months.”
The amount of information sharing out of the government, “whether it’s cyber threats, physical threats to the grid, trends that they’re seeing, issues we need to be aware of and then using the ISAC as a vehicle for getting that rapidly communicated out to industry was, I think, just superb.”
Robb said that the best of that “ecosystem around the ISAC, and the intelligence community and the government partnerships that we have has worked” since he took the helm at NERC two years ago.
“I think the whole model served us all very, very well through this period,” Robb said.
FERC also plays role
NERC in April asked the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission to approve a motion in which NERC sought approval to defer the implementation of several reliability standards that have effective dates or phased-in implementation dates in the second half of 2020. NERC said that the action was a measure to help assure grid reliability amid the impacts posed by the COVID-19 pandemic.
APPA, the Edison Electric Institute, the National Rural Electric Cooperative Association and the Large Public Power Council submitted a filing at FERC in support of NERC’s motion.
FERC approved the NERC motion in April.
During industry conference calls related to the pandemic, participants have emphasized the need for regulatory relief.
Reliability outlook for the summer
Meanwhile, NERC has said that potential workforce disruptions, supply chain interruptions and increased cyber security threats caused by COVID-19 have elevated the electric industry’s reliability risk profile.
Robb was asked whether NERC is giving equal weight to these pandemic-related threats to reliability as the country heads into the summer months or if it is concerned about one of these threats, in particular, and if so why.
“I think there are a lot of countervailing factors in place, recognizing that the glass that we’re looking through right now is murkier than it typically is for a whole bunch of reasons,” Robb said.
“From a core reliability perspective, had this been a normal year the places we’d be really concerned about would be Texas, for example, because their reserve margins are so tight, but the fact of the matter is that loads are off and they’ve been able to bring some new generation on,” he noted. “They’ve got some breathing room that we wouldn’t have expected. Now, of course, we’re highly dependent on weather in Texas for loads.”
“I think the one thing that we’re not as clear about is the ability of the industry to fully prepare for the summer,” Robb said. In terms of maintenance turnarounds and construction projects, in some jurisdictions “those were very hard to move forward during the height of the pandemic, so there’s still a little bit of a bet as to generation readiness for the summer, but in general everybody’s reporting a high degree of confidence on that front.”
Another issue that looms as the country heads into the summer, particularly in the Southeast, is that “everyone’s projecting this to be a pretty active storm season,” Robb noted.
NERC distributed an alert in March to get a better handle on industry pandemic planning including mutual aid “and whether companies would be prepared to honor mutual aid requests as we move into the storm season,” he said in the interview.
Two-thirds of the entities surveyed, “which are probably 90 percent of the people who would provide mutual aid anyway, all said that they would, so that bodes well,” Robb said.
“We’re headed into what’s always a tough season with one arm tied behind our back. I’m sure the industry will work through issues as they arise, but it will be that much more difficult as we move through.”
Robb said that the power sector’s response in terms of early season storms, such as those that hit Tennessee, was “as good as it always is. I don’t think that there was any sense that it was hindered as a result of the pandemic in terms of restoration efforts.”
GridEx
The President and CEO of NERC also discussed the most recent GridEx, which occurred in 2019.
GridEx, which takes place every two years, allows utilities, government partners and other critical infrastructure participants to engage with local and regional first responders, exercise cross-sector impacts, improve unity of messages and communication, identify lessons learned and engage senior leadership.
The exercise began in 2011 and NERC hosts the GridEx series. The 2019 GridEx, which occurred in November 2019, marked the fifth such exercise.
Robb said that GridEx V was the most successful GridEx to date “because we had more participation – particularly more participation out of the public power utilities.”
APPA played “a really important role in getting more of them to participate in the distributed play aspect of the drill,” he went on to say. In 2017, 53 public power entities participated in GridEx, while in 2019, 100 public power entities participated.
At the same time, he said that each GridEx has built on the previous one, so therefore it is “kind of apples and oranges to say which was better.”
With GridEx V, a different approach was taken, which was “very successful and timely,” Robb said. “I think previous ones focused on national level issues and really some high-level policy questions. One of our design goals in this one was to take the focus down a level and not spend so much time on broad, sweeping policy statements, but really to focus in on the more operational issues that you’d actually face.”
A regional scenario was created for the executive tabletop “where we basically had a combined physical/cyberattack on Manhattan, which then cascades through New York State and then up into Ontario.” The regional focus “allowed us to get a very specific set of players to the table.”
In addition, “we also focused on getting more operational – like COO types – rather than the CEOs, to really work through what set of issues we are going to run into.”
The overall construct was “more operational, more focused,” while also including an international element.
“I think this time we also had the best success we’ve had to date at getting non-electric sector participants,” Robb said. “We had a couple of large telecom companies, a couple of large pipelines at the table. We had a major equipment supplier.”
Therefore, there was an opportunity “for a much richer conversation around supply chain and the cross-sector dependencies that we would have, particularly with the telecom sector, which is something I think we’re going to continue to work on exercising because that’s less well developed than some of the others.”
Robb said that “the other thing that we did is we brought DOE to the table and asked them to exercise their authorities under the FAST Act to create a grid security emergency order.” This move prompted a “very rich conversation around what should an order entail, how specific should it be, what should be left to industry to figure out versus what the government needs to be able to do.”
One of the lessons learned is that the government should be clear about setting restoration priorities, “and then let the utilities work through, well, what’s the best way to get to that objective,” he noted.
“We also had some interesting learnings around the applicability of a grid security emergency order to the natural gas industry,” he said. Natural gas in most places but particularly in the Northeast is a fuel of last resort.
“It’s the fuel that keeps the lights on when nothing else is available,” he said. “You can imagine the importance of making sure that you’ve got fuel supply to those critical generating plants” that are important for blackstart purposes and “reboot the system if you will.”
Robb said that figuring out “how you move gas from where it is to where it needs to be when the pipelines don’t own the gas wasn’t really an issue we really thought about very much, but it became very clear that there’s a whole host of liability protections and so forth that need to be put in place for the pipeline operators in order to be able to support grid restoration.”
Addressing the broader question of reliability risks, Robb said that along with the “ubiquitous risk” of cybersecurity, there are three risks that NERC and the power sector are highly focused on.
The first revolves around supply chain. “That’s a really thorny, complicated issue,” he said. “Our new supply chain standard requirements will go in effect now in October” and NERC will continue to evaluate “whether we’ve got those right and what modifications to those might need to be put in place.”
NERC is working with the DOE on implementation of a supply chain executive order.
President Donald Trump on May 1 signed an executive order that authorizes U.S. Secretary of Energy Dan Brouillette to work with the Cabinet and energy industry to secure the country’s bulk-power system.
Meanwhile, NERC has seen several issues emerge lately tied to facility ratings, Robb noted. NERC has an initiative underway jointly with the North American Transmission Forum in order to get an understanding “and whether there are any systemic issues that we need to be addressing and raise awareness” for utilities around ensuring that their equipment ratings are correct.
The third area that NERC will continue to push on relates to issues surrounding fuel adequacy. With the shift towards a power sector that has more variable supplies such as solar and wind, along with the issues surrounding the just in time nature of natural gas deliveries, “particularly if you don’t have gas storage in your area, you really have to have your eyes open to fuel as well as iron in the ground.”
As for cybersecurity, Robb said that the “adversaries are persistent, opportunistic, very opportunistic.” He said that “we have to continue to ensure that the industry continues to be vigilant, never takes its eye off the ball and of course that’s a high priority for the CEOs. Our posture in this area I think is very good, but it only takes one.” Cyber “hygiene” remains a very important risk area for the industry, he said.
CPUC Grants Conditional PSPS Approvals, Accelerates Microgrid Deployments
June 18, 2020
by Peter Maloney
APPA News
Posted June 18, 2020
The California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) last week granted conditional approval of wildfire mitigation plans submitted by utilities in the state.
In a separate action on the same day, June 11, the CPUC issued a decision requiring the state’s large investor-owned utilities to accelerate deployment of microgrids and resiliency projects to minimize the impacts of wildfire-caused power outages and Public Safety Power Shut-off (PSPS) events.
Wildfire mitigation plans
In approving the wildfire mitigation plans for Horizon West and Trans Bay Cable, Liberty Utilities, PacifiCorp, Southern California Edison, San Diego Gas & Electric, and Pacific Gas and Electric (Docket #: R.18-10-007), the CPUC is requiring the utilities to provide “clear analysis and data” to support their wildfire safety proposals.
To that end, the CPUC developed risk measurement tools, including a “Maturity Model,” that evaluates the utilities’ wildfire risk mitigation efforts across 10 categories and 52 specific capabilities.
The CPUC held the wildfire mitigation plan of Bear Valley Electric Service until the commission’s June 25 meeting.
While the CPUC said the utilities are “generally demonstrating progress” in reducing wildfire risk, most utilities “demonstrate a need for improvement.”
For instance, in a separate June 10 document, the CPUC said it is “imperative” that Pacific Gas and Electric makes “a meaningful reduction” in the scale and scope of PSPS [Public Safety Power Shutoffs] for the 2020 fire season and beyond.”
But despite the utility’s programs and improved re-energization protocols, “PG&E does not articulate quantitatively how it expects hardening to increase PSPS thresholds for individual circuits,” impeding the commission’s ability “to determine how the $5.3 billion in hardening work will affect the probability of a PSPS in communities in California.”
In a similar vein, the CPUC said that Southern California Edison (SCE) “has not described their deployment strategy and timelines in sufficient detail to convince the [commission] that the highest risk circuits are being targeted in a nuanced way and that this work will be completed on time” and must meet the conditions issued by the CPUC to address those gaps.
Microgrid decision
In the June 11 microgrid decision ( Docket #: R.19-09-009), the CPUC called for the state’s utilities to streamline and expedite interconnection processes for microgrids, resiliency, and other projects, and to collaborate with local and tribal governments to rapidly develop and deploy projects that could keep electricity on for critical facilities and other customers during power outages.
The CPUC put the microgrid rulemaking on a fast track after “the mismanagement by utilities of the October 2019 PSPS events” and said the new rule is intended to increase the deployment of new projects during this wildfire season.”
Last November, the CPUC began an investigation to assess whether the state’s investor-owned utilities properly balanced the need to provide safe and reliable service when planning and executing their recent PSPS events.
“The use of microgrids, coupled with the CPUC’s work to hold utilities accountable for creating and implementing wildfire mitigation plans, will help make communities more resilient in advance of the 2020 Wildfire season,” CPUC President Marybel Batjer said in a statement.
In addition to microgrids, the June 11 order requires the state’s IOUs to modify their net energy metering tariffs to allow storage devices to charge from the grid in advance of a PSPS event. The order also requires the IOUs to modify their net energy metering tariffs to remove the storage sizing limit.
Chelan County PUD Commissioners Hear Details on Plans To Boost Reliability
June 16, 2020
by Paul Ciampoli
APPA News Director
Posted June 16, 2020
Chelan County PUD commissioners on June 15 heard proposals from PUD staff to bring the utility to the top quartile of reliable electrical service, in line with other high-performing U.S. public power providers.
If approved in future budgets, the utility would make annual investments of an additional $2 million throughout its electrical system for a total of $4.3 million each year, the Washington State PUD noted.
Through these investments, PUD staff aim to reduce overall outages by an average of 36 minutes annually per customer, a reduction of 73 percent systemwide. The PUD is targeting meeting this goal by 2025.
By some measures, the PUD already is meeting top quartile performance and is now seeking to remove any doubts, Chelan said.
“In setting this goal, we looked at reliability metrics at some of the top performing electric utilities in the country, based on data from the American Public Power Association,” said Chad Rissman, director of district asset management.
Additional investments would be made in the areas of trimming vegetation around utility lines and replacing underground electrical cable. These investment areas deliver the most “bang for the buck,” according to Rissman.
“Providing benchmarking data to help with reliability efforts is a core element of what APPA offers to members such as Chelan,” said Alex Hofmann, Acting Vice President of Engineering Services at APPA. “Improving and maintaining reliability to keep the lights on longer in our communities is what public power is all about,” he said.
Chelan also plans to continue its commitment to improvements that reduce instances of animal-related outages and upgrade equipment such as fuses, transformers, insulators and other devices.
When looking at the largest causes of outages over the past five years, the PUD notes that 65 percent fell into the four areas where it’s proposing to make additional improvements or maintain its level of reliability work.
“If there’s a great place where we can put extra effort and provide benefits to the people of Chelan County, this is it,” said PUD Commissioner Randy Smith.
The PUD will revisit the proposed reliability investments during its budget process later this year.