Unscheduled Flow Administrative Subcommittee (UFAS)
Report to the WECC Operating Committee
March 25, 2015
Salt Lake City, UT
Recent & Future Meetings
WECC’s Unscheduled Flow Administrative Subcommittee (UFAS) and Unscheduled Flow Task Force
(USFTF) last met on January 27 and 28, 2015 in Salt Lake City. The next meetings are scheduled for
May 20 and 21, 2014.
Please refer to the UFAS page of the WECC website for further information about scheduled meetings.
UFAS Membership
UFAS is currently short a Device Operator member. UFAS has actively been seeking a replacement
member from Qualified Device Owners.
Robin Chung steps down as UFAS chair this month. Robin will remain on the UFAS as an At Large
member until the end of 2015, at which time she wills step down and give someone else the
opportunity to serve. Pete Heiman, current UFAS Vice Chair, will take on the leadership role. We wish
him luck. The Vice Chair position will be open, UFAS members are leery of the time commitment.
UFAS anticipates at least one more At Large member will step down at the end of 2015. UFAS asks the
membership to consider if you are interested in serving.
Lifting 1995 Assessment Cap
At the October 2014 Operating Committee meeting, the Operating Committee voted to lift the 1995
Assessment Cap in order to collect the full amount that WECC members have committed to
compensate the Device Operators for their incurred costs. At the current time, WECC staff is working
to clean up documents necessary to file and seeking a Qualified Device Operator to file on behalf of all
Device Operators.
UFAS and the USFTF want to ensure that all WECC members understand that lifting the 1995 caps will
result in no capping in the up or down direction. Effectively, this will remove the “Top 13” tier. Three
years’ worth of data will still be gathered, and companies will be ranked and billed accordingly.
UFMP Assessments Calculation Proposal
The USFTF, after much discussion, has come back to proposing that that assessment calculations be
done on a Balancing Authority basis. WECC BAs would be charged a base fee and then the remaining
allocation would be divided amount BAs based on Load and Generation numbers. It would then be up
WESTERN ELECTRICITY COORDINATING COUNCIL
155 North 400 West, Suite 200
Salt Lake City, Utah 84103-1114
UFAS Report to the Operating Committee, March 25, 2015
2
to individual BAs as to how they would collect assessments from their customers. One huge advantage
of this method is that it would eliminate double-charging some WECC members.
The USFTF realizes that this may not be feasible, and is seeking input from WECC Balancing
Authorities. The guiding principles behind a new assessment methodology is that it be fair and
equitable to the entire WECC and also be simple and easy to manage. The USFTF continues to be
challenged by these tenants. Untagged schedules, complications with utilizing tags and reporting data
make the task difficult.
Ultimately, the USFTF has concluded that using tags are not a viable option which lead to considering a
by BA assessment.
Some high level reasons tags are not ideal for calculation of assessments:






Incomplete representation of the system
Too complicated
Doesn’t account for untagged flows
To many parties on individual tag to assign responsibility
Volume of tags makes analysis difficult
Access to tag data not readily available to WECC
New USF 16-Bucket Reduction Guideline Implemented
On March 4, 2015 the new Unscheduled Flow 16 Bucket Reduction Guideline Methodology was
implemented. webSAS experienced no major issues, and the methodology appears to be working as
expected at this time.
The basis of the 16 bucket is that curtailment order is determined by transmission priority and on and
off path tags. Lowest transmission priority off path, then lowest transmission priority on path until
relief is met. We should need fewer tags to get the relief necessary. If webSAS gets enough relief
from cutting the first bucket (off path, lowest transmission priority), cuts stop. If the bucket has more
than enough tags, webSAS will pro-rate the entire bucket based on the TDF squared methodology.
Tags that have a TDF of 10% or greater will get cut. Below that, no cut. This is also a change, as the
current threshold is 6%. Accommodation is gone in the 16 bucket methodology. Because on path
tags are getting cut, it is no longer necessary. Regarding TDFs, we will still utilize the Summer and
Winter matrixes as we do today.2
There are still some reporting issues to be worked out, but the overall implementation has been
successful. FERC is requiring an evaluation to the process after one year. UFAS and WECC staff has
already begun to look closely at the recent USF Events to see how the new methodology is working.
W
E S T E R N
E
L E C T R I C I T Y
C
O O R D I N A T I N G
C
O U N C I L
UFAS Report to the Operating Committee, March 25, 2015
3
UFAS Charter
The UFAS Charter requires the Subcommittee to evaluate it on a yearly basis. This takes place at the
January meeting. The current data sharing issues within WECC and Peak RC have caused concern with
the UFAS charter. There are items in the charter that UFAS cannot perform.
UFAS cannot:
c. Collect, review, and analyze data related to USF events. Report applicable findings on a
regular basis to the WECC OC.
d. Monitor coordinated operation of the Qualified Controllable Devices.
UFAS can perform these duties, but ineffectively without necessary data:
e.
Develop or review guidelines to enable Path Operators to implement actions that will
achieve the desired results.
f.
Review alternative policies, procedures, and methodologies for dealing with
unscheduled flow.
UFAS finds itself in a position where WECC is named in a FERC Tariff filing as administrator of the
program, but does not have the data to perform administrative duties.
Other UFAS and USFTF Activities
UFAS continues to deal with POR/POD mapping issues. After the latest 16 bucket testing, there was
clean up done. To ensure future mapping problems don’t occur, UFAS is endeavoring to educate
themselves more on how the mapping works, and institute processes to ensure new points are mapped
correctly in the program.
UFAs continues to participate in and closely monitor Peak Reliability’s Enhance Curtailment Calculator
project. Dynamic schedules continue to be an area of concern.
Path and Device Qualification
Tri-State’s Gladstone Phase Shifter has been operating as a Qualified Device since December 2014. As
expected, it has been a huge help in relieving flows on Path 31, and helps other Paths as well,
although to a lesser extent.
W
E S T E R N
E
L E C T R I C I T Y
C
O O R D I N A T I N G
C
O U N C I L
UFAS Report to the Operating Committee, March 25, 2015
4
Northwestern Energy’s Crossover PST has been unavailable for UFMP mitigation since December 16,
2014. It is currently sitting at Tap Position 5, retarding southbound flows across Path 80. In this
position, there is minimal impact to Path 66.
Path 23 is up for disqualification. Arizona Public Service was notified in January; UFAS will evaluate
their position at the next meeting.
Operating Statistics
Plan Year 21 (CY2015) activity as of March 18, 2015 of indicates 125 hours of Coordinated Operations
of Phase Shifters (COPS) with 57 hours of contributing schedule curtailments. A total of 8,414.6 MWhs
of Relief to Unscheduled Flow was provided by Curtailments. There were 3 hours of competing Path
usage to date, between Path 36 and Path 66.
Respectfully Submitted,
Robin Chung
March 19, 2015
W
E S T E R N
E
L E C T R I C I T Y
C
O O R D I N A T I N G
C
O U N C I L