WestConnect Activities

Charles ReinholdWestConnect Project Manager

2008 ACC BTA Workshop

Phoenix, AZ

May 22, 2008

ACC BTA Workshop May 22, 2008

WestConnect Organization

• A Group of Transmission Owners in the Western Grid

• Organized under a Memorandum of Understanding

• Purposes:– Continue investigation of feasibility of cost-effective

wholesale market enhancements– Work cooperatively with other Western Grid

Organizations and market participants– Address seams issues in appropriate forums

2

WestConnect

Arizona Public Service

El Paso Electric

Imperial Irrigation District

Nevada Power Company

Public Service Colorado

Public Service New Mexico

Sacramento Municipal Utility District

Salt River Project

Sierra Pacific Power Company

TOTALS Jan. 2007

46,000 MW of Load

34,000 Miles of Transmission Line

7.0 Million Retail Customers Served

Southwest Transmission Cooperative

Transmission Agency of Northern California

Tri-State G & T Association

Tucson Electric Power

Western Area Power Administration- Rocky Mountain Region

- Desert Southwest Region-Sierra Nevada Region-CRSP Management Office

ACC BTA Workshop May 22, 2008

3

LEGEND

WestConnect LinesCalifornia LinesLADWP LinesDC Lines

WestConnect Transmission Footprint

ACC BTA Workshop May 22, 2008

Market Enhancement Initiatives Active Work Groups

• Regional Pricing Experiment

• Virtual Control Area

• Transmission Products (Conditional Firm)

• TTC/ATC Process

• Flow Based Market Initiatives

• Regional Transmission Planning5

ACC BTA Workshop May 22, 2008

Regional Pricing Experiment

• Developed a proposed two-year experiment to eliminate rate pancaking for hourly non-firm transactions

• Preparing FERC filing package for submittal June 1 or shortly after

• Experiment to begin in early 2009

6

ACC BTA Workshop May 22, 2008

Virtual Control Area Activities

• Joining NTTG Ace Diversity Interchange (ADI) Program – Q3 2008

• Western Wind & Solar Integration Study conducted by NREL to determine additional regulation enhancements

• Contingency reserve sharing analysis7

Virtual Control Area ActivitiesADI

• ADI is the pooling of individual Area Control Errors (ACE) to take advantage of control area diversity

• By pooling ACE, participants will likely be able to:– Reduce control burden on individual control areas;– Reduce unnecessary generator control movement;– Reduce sensitivity to resources with potentially

volatile output, such as wind projects, and,– Realize improvements in Control Performa.nce

Standards

8

ACC BTA Workshop May 22, 2008

Virtual Control Area ActivitiesADI

• Hosted on British Columbia Transmission Corp EMS System

• Some WestConnect BAs have executed contract documents to join the program:APS NPC PNM

PSCO SPPC SRP9

ACC BTA Workshop May 22, 2008

Virtual Control Area ActivitiesADI

• Projected Operation Date:

July 1, 2008

• Additional WestConnect BAs considering participation

• See: http://www.nationalwind.org/pdf/OpatrnyADI_FtCollins_091907.pdf

• for more detail on ADI operations 10

Virtual Control Area ActivitiesContingency Reserves

• Two existing reserve sharing groups in WestConnect footprint– Southern Reserve Sharing Group– Rocky Mountain Reserve Sharing Group

• Sharing between the groups historically limited by transfer capability

• Analysis of current potential under consideration

11

ACC BTA Workshop May 22, 2008

Transmission Products

• Developed regional business practices for conditional firm transmission service

• Early stages of assessment of potential for standardization of planning redispatch practices

12

ACC BTA Workshop May 22, 2008

TTC/ATC Process

• Annual workshop held May 21, 2008

• Continuing efforts to make information available and responsive to stakeholders’ needs

13

14

WestConnect Subregional Planning Groups

ColoradoCoordinated

PlanningGroup

SouthwestArea

Transmission

CCPGCCPG

SWATSWAT

SIERRASIERRANew Area ?

CCPG and SWAT act as WestConnect technical planning work groups for WestConnect planning area

•Coordinate Base Cases for use by all study participants

•Define subregional study plans, provide study resources, and perform studies

•Provide forum for coordination and peer review of planning studies and 10-year plans

ACC BTA Workshop May 22, 2008

Jun Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov DecJan Feb Mar Apr MaySep Oct Nov Dec Jan Feb Mar Apr

Database Preparation

Request WindowStudy Plan Development

Study Execution

Analysis

Report PreparationReport Approvals

Historical Data Analysis

2007 2008 2009

2008 Synchronized Study Plan

TEPPC

WESTCONNECT

BASE CASE 2013 & 2018

EXHIBIT 5

EXHIBIT 9

EXHIBIT 10

EXHIBIT 12

EXIHIBIT 13

NREL STUDY

SCWG

SUBREGIONAL PLANING GROUPS

NREL

SCWG

CRT

AZNM

CCPG

SPPG

SATS

ADEQUACY STUDY

BIENNIAL L. R. STUDY

CATS-EHV

CATS-HV

TO BE DETERMINED

NM STUDY GRP

Request Window

Report Preparation

EXHIBIT 4

Annual Adequacy Study • Purpose – test the adequacy of most recently published

WestConnect Transmission Plan (excluding conceptual projects)

• A WestConnect-wide study utilizing the 5th and 10th year coordinated base cases

• Perform traditional N-0, N-1 and N-2 contingency outages

• Establish reliability risk of potential corridor outages with planned transmission projects in 10th year

• Complete studies by August joint CCPG/SWAT meeting

• Deficiencies in plan noted with sufficient lead time for subregional planning participants to investigate solutions for inclusion in the 2008 WestConnect Transmission Plan

17

Biennial Long Range Study

• Purpose – Biennially explore conceptual long range transmission needs within WestConnect Planning Area.

• A Westconnect –wide study of contemporary issues facing the industry in the 10th year and beyond.

• Utilizes the 10th year coordinated base case with load forecasts and generation scenarios representative of the study time period. Study limited to power flow and only considers N-1 outages.

• Initial study has two fold objective:– Provide traditional transmission reliability oriented studies in

response to the TEPPC economic transmission study results,

– Study WestConnect-wide integration of renewable energy projects

• Complete initial study in 2009

18

Planned Projects by State

StateNo.

ProjectsTotal

MilesEstimated Cost

(2008 $M)

Arizona 66 1,403 2,331

California 10 759 1,593

Colorado 16 1,892 2,016

Nevada 5 415 864

New Mex. 4 117 141

Texas 5 50 24

Multi-State 0 0 0

TOTAL 106 4,636 $ 6,969

19

Conceptual Projects by State

StateNo.

ProjectsTotal

MilesEstimated Cost

(2008 $M)

Arizona 15 286 185

California 1 18 27

Colorado 0 0 0

Nevada 1 31 70

New Mex. 2 71 122

Texas 0 0 0

Multi-State 3 3,850 5,800

TOTAL 22 4,256 $ 6,204

ACC BTA Workshop May 22, 2008

Contacts and Information

• WestConnect (www.westconnect.com)• Charles Reinhold – Project Manager

• reinhold@globalcrossing.net• 208-253-6916

20