ERCOT 2013 Winter Storm Drill (WSD)Summary

Brian BarcalowTraining Specialist, Sr.

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2013 WSD

• Drill was conducted November 5th and 6th • New for 2013:

– Provided remote access to the ERCOT simulator for Market Participants (31 of the participants utilized this service)

• TOs/TDSPs had access to the Macomber Map and WebFG with full privileges to perform switching, control voltage, etc.

• QSEs had access to WebFG only and this was Read Only due to how the simulator works.

– Forum phone system in the OTS for hotline calls• Hotline calls for Day 1 were from the Realtime Hotline

• Hotline calls for Day 2 were from the OTS using the FORUM system

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2013 WSD Participants

Entity Type Number of Entities

Number of Participants

Number of NERC Certified Participants

ERCOT/NERC Reliability Training Hours

TO/TDSP 18 * 180 ** 77 ** 755 **

QSE 35 * 221** 48 ** 712 **

ERCOT Operators N/A 12 11 88

ERCOT Support/Trainers

N/A 5 5 40

Totals 53 418 141 1,595

** This is based on data from the Market Participants that submitted critiques.• TO/TDSP: 14 out of 18• QSE: 27 out of 35

* This is based on Market Participants that responded to Hotline calls on the day of the Drill.• TO/TDSP: 18 out of 18• QSE: 35 out of 37

Not included in the table above is Rayburn County Electric Co-op

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Participant Feedback

• Was ERCOT’s level of involvement the correct amount? If no, please explain.

All participants overwhelmingly thought that ERCOT’s involvement was the correct amount for the drill.

• Prior to the start of the drill, did you have the external phone lists you needed? Also describe any problems with phones, fax, emails, radios, etc.All participants agreed that all the contact numbers for the drill were correct and provided to them in a timely manner. Some participants reported that they had trouble contacting ERCOT operators at times. This was largely due to the single line phones in the OTS. ERCOT also experienced issues with the FORUM system (server issues that crashed the system) forcing ERCOT operators to make individual calls to participants for hotline calls in the afternoon. This forced ERCOT to deviate from the timeline of the drill script.

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Participant Feedback

• Did you use ERCOT’s simulator (Macomber Map / WebFG) during your participation in the drill? If yes, did you experience any problems with your remote access to the ERCOT simulator?

– TO/TDSP Response:

• A majority of the TOs used the Macomber Map and WebFG. There was only one participant that was unable to use it due to connectivity issues. One of the larger TOs recommended several Citrix accounts (logins) per participant instead of only one. Other recommendations were about the Macomber Map functionality having a look-up table to search for the station acronym names, be able to rapidly zoom in/out of the one line diagram, and the dark red/dark blue for over/under voltage was hard to see.

– QSE Response:• 16 participants requested simulator logins and based on critiques received,

12 logged in during the simulation. All were able to login with little to no issues. Most were satisfied with being able to view their stations and resources during the drill. Others made recommendations such as provide multiple logins, allow full access to operate their generators, provide a user guide, and provide screens that show PRC, total Gen and Load, Frequency, etc.

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Participant Feedback

• List other lessons learned, as well as any recommendations for improvement of the drill.

– Most participants agree that the overall drill went well. Some of the lessons learned were as follows:

• Identified internal emergency procedures and notifications that needed to be revised or updated.

• Identified issues with some of their communication tools (radios, phones, etc.)

• Do not use the same phone lines for communicating with ERCOT as well as all other internal areas (resources, facilities, and other participants)

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Participant Feedback

• Recommendations for future drills:– Provide multiple simulator logins per participant– Have specific events built into the simulator vs. the participants

doing them manually– Fix the phone issues (FORUM), from numerous participants– Provide access to the Macomber Map for QSEs– Allow QSEs to operate their equipment (instead of read only)– Find an actual day with resource and transmission line limitation to

run the drill against not let people dream up scenarios– Engage more plants in simulated drills and also simulate changes

to base points at plants– Provide additional training on the use of the simulator (user guide)– Man the ERCOT phones on Day 1 of the drill

Hurricane Drill 2014

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Hurricane Drill 2014

• The drill will be conducted during the week of May 12th, 2014• The simulated storm will be based on Hurricane Carla

(September 1961) for intensity and path.• ERCOT took a snapshot of the grid October 31, 2013, this will

be the topology of the grid and scheduled generation for the drill.

• Market Notice (invite, scripts, storm path map, wind speeds, and rainfall totals, etc.) will be sent out mid-January 2014

• Participant RSVPs and information returned to ERCOT by March 1, 2014

• ERCOT Training Department will incorporate as many of the recommendations from the WSD as possible.

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