Bulletin Index 1999
We periodically post bulletins here to inform customers of developments within BC Hydro Transmission and/or the industry and/or to solicit feedback on policy changes. These announcements can be time sensitive, so please subscribe for the updates.
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Our Transmission Scheduling bulletins for 1999 are listed below. Select another year in the drop-down to view bulletins from the archive.
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January - April
May - August
September - December
Imports from Non-Designated Resources
Posted on
January 1
, 12:00 a.m.
The following policy regarding a Network Integration customer's imports from non-designated resources (use of "Network Economy") has been formalized and is effective immediately: Where a Network Integration customer's net energy on Point-To-Point transmission on one intertie is an export and net energy on another intertie is an import, then the import, to a maximum of the export, must also be on Point-To-Point transmission. That is, Network Integration customers may import from non-designated resources (use "Network Economy") only for that portion of an import which could not be construed as "wheeled through."
Y2K Scheduling Information Limitation
Posted on
January 1
, 12:00 a.m.
BC Hydro has participated in WSCC preparations for the Y2K Rollover period (hour ending 22 on December 31 to hour ending 04 on January 1). To prepare for the rollover, we have conducted studies and determined the system configuration that maximizes the reliability of the electric system. In addition, in consultation with WSCC and our neighbouring systems, we have implemented net scheduling limits on our interties for this time period.
In order to meet BC Hydro's load forecast under now predicted normal weather conditions and to adhere to WSCC Net Scheduling Limits the following Total Transfer Capabilities (TTC) and Scheduling Limits have been established for the planned Y2K rollover period.
The BC – US Total Transfer Capability (TTC) during the transition will be: BC to US: 300MW US to BC: 300 MW * Note: the BC-US scheduling limits will be 300 MW less the TRM (100 MW)
The BC – Alberta scheduling limits during the transition will be: BC to Alberta: 35MW Alberta to BC: 35 MW * Note the BC-Alberta scheduling limts already have the TRM removed.
These tieline limits will only be increased during the transition period by mutual consent between BC Hydro System Operations and the Pacific Northwest Security Coordinator.
There may be circumstances whereby the Y2K rollover transition period, and consequently tieline scheduling restrictions, may need to be extended. The most accurate and up-to-date source for TTC and ATC information will continue to be on OASIS or, in the event of an OASIS failure, with BC Hydro's System Control. Additionally, all BC Hydro Y2K announcements including status and/or rationale for extending rollover scheduling limits will be posted on the BC Hydro Internet website (www.bchydro.com)
New Rate Schedules 3001 & 3002
Posted on
January 1
, 12:00 a.m.
BC Hydro has recently received approval from the BCUC for changes to Rate Schedules 3001 and 3002 -- Point-to-Point Firm and Non-Firm Service. New rate schedules can be found in the Documents section of this site.
Effective 1 Feb 99, Long Term Firm rates increase from 4.26 $/kw*mo to 4.68 $/kw*mo for customers with service on the BC>US and AB>US paths. Effective 1 Feb 99, the tariff maximum rate for Short Term Firm & Non-Firm service increases from 5.9 $/MWh to 6.4 $/MWh; prices for existing contracts do not change. This new maximum will be effective 31 Jan 99 in preschedule and 1 Feb 99 in real-time.
Firm Service: Changes to POR/POD
Posted on
January 1
, 12:00 a.m.
BC Hydro has recently determined the procedure firm service customers may use to change their points of receipt and delivery under sections 13.7 and 22 of the tariff terms & conditions. The new procedure will be effective February 2nd, 1999. A copy of the procedure is available in the Documents section of this site.
Customer Input Requested
Posted on
January 1
, 12:00 a.m.
BC Hydro, Bonneville Power Administration TBL, and Puget Sound Energy are seeking customer input on scheduling and posting of the PNW-Canada (BCHA<>BPAT) Path. A questionnaire has been prepared; please submit your comments by 4:00 pm Monday, April 5,1999.
Real Time Scheduling Limitation - November 21
Posted on
January 1
, 12:00 a.m.
On Sunday November 21 between 11:00 a.m. and 1:00 p.m. PST our scheduling system (TSS) will be unavailable as a result of a major system changeover. As such we will be unable to make scheduling changes during that time. You are advised to pre-schedule transmission as much as possible. Real Time will accept requests for transmission for HE 12 and HE 13 until 10:35 a.m PST.
We regret the inconvenience this may cause.
Announcement - Spinning Reserve
ANNOUNCEMENT - SPINNING RESERVE PTP TRANSMISSION SERVICE
Effective 00:00 November 1, 1999, BC Hydro Grid Operations plans to offer transmission service to facilitate transmission customer sales of Spinning Reserve (as an on-demand right) to other control areas. This "new service", similar to the service for Transmission for Contingency Reserve, is a hourly point-to-point firm service with the following business practice changes:
1. Grid Ops will not include this transmission in calculating unused firm available for resale as non-firm nor will we accept requests for such purchases.
2. POR/POD changes are not permitted.
3. Energy is scheduled on the reservation solely by telephone call to the Generation Dispatcher (in real-time) directly from the applicable control area(s) only.
4. The control areas involved must be identified when the reservation is made and may not be changed.
5. BCH System Control (real-time) staff will notify transmission customers of schedules implemented on their reservations.
Other policy notes:
A. The Transmission customer can covert its existing unused Firm Transmission reservation to Spinning Reserve Point-to-Point Firm Transmission Service.
B. Grid Operations will charge tariff maximum rate (currently $6.4/MWh) to accommodate the business practice changes and compensate for potential loss of non-firm sales.
C. The transmission customer is responsible for ensuring a firm transmission path is available from sender to receiver and ensuring sufficient generation capacity is available from the sender.
If you have any questions, please contact Laura Letourneau at (604) 473-2707 or Martin Huang at (604) 293-5809.
Announcement
Announcement Regarding September 30th /October 1st Competition for Monthly Transmission
Review of Events – September 30th /October 1st
- On the evening of September 30, 1999 at approximately 22:00 BPA’s OASIS site crashed and remained inoperable until approximately 02:00 October 1st.
- BPA is unclear as to what caused the crash and has been unable to explain the failure.
- During the failure there was considerable confusion as to the process that should be taken to submit requests while OASIS is down.
- As a pre-schedule office there were no schedulers working at the time which resulted in many questions being directed to our control room.
- Pre-schedule staff arrived 05:00 October 1st and began to process the requests. After a briefing from the control room pre-schedule staff processed the requests under the impression that all of the 150 requests were post 00:00 October 1st and were numbered in correct sequence. The time printed on the faxes was actually the senders time stamp. We had no way of knowing the accuracy of those times (eg. There were time stamps indicating incorrect dates and months!)
- At approximately 09:00 Powerex called to inquire about their November/December firm transmission request. Pre-schedule staff told Powerex to submit an OASIS request referencing the fax while they located the original.
- Powerex did submit the OASIS request and based on the time stamp of the Powerex fax request the request was accepted. This original request has been numbered "0".
- Requests 1 - 70 were pre-confirmed No and were refused due to higher priority requests following in the queue.
- Requests 71 and 72 were blank and therefore invalid.
- Requests 73-82 were from Powerex for non-firm transmission BPAT>EAL for 9 months starting December and appeared as valid submissions. This request was accepted.
- Requests 83-90 were from TransCanada Power for a 10 month duration. Powerex exercised their right of first refusal and retained their place in the queue.
- Requests 91-101 were from TransAlta all were pre-confirmed No.
- Requests 102-103 from TransCanada for shorter durations.
- Requests 104-110 from TransAlta all pre-confirmed No.
- Requests 111from Powerex was 9 month duration.
- Requests 112-113 from TransCanada for 11 month duration. Powerex again matched duration.
- Requests 114-149 were refused due to no ATC.
Subsequent Investigation:
- At the time of the OASIS failure the control room appropriately communicated to customers that they only receive real time requests with the exception of one call at 23:43. After being unable to provide the pre-schedule fax number, control room staff provided the control room fax number to Powerex.
- Within 3 minutes of the above mentioned call at 23:46:52 the control room began calling customers notifying them of the correct process that should be taken to submit monthly requests while OASIS is down. The message was that the time stamp of faxed requests would be used to establish order of queue and that the fax number to send requests to was (604) 473-2722.
- Powerex faxed to the control room fax a request on behalf of Power Supply for monthly firm transmission (543 MW) for November and December (control room fax time stamp read 23:56).
- The remaining faxes were sent correctly to the pre-schedule fax (604) 473-2722 and were numbered in order of receipt.
- There was a large volume of incoming fax requests on the preschedule fax number.
- Immediately after all the faxes were received the control room staff printed off a report showing the sending number, our receipt time and the number of pages. Based on this information our pre-schedule staff have since been able to cross reference each fax and provide a received time stamp. However, after further investigation we discovered that the pre-schedule fax clock was 1 minute and 53 seconds behind, and the information provided is in whole minutes.
- Since the pre-schedule fax does not have the capability to recognize and/or identify fractions of minutes leaving it impossible to determine if or which of the Powerex requests were pre-00:00 or valid post 00:00. (For example, adding 1 minute 53 seconds to 23:58:00 is pre-00:00 but adding it to 23:58:59 would be post 00:00)
Conclusion:
- Based on the situation as we understand it, we feel there is no other option but to re-run the bidding process.
- We are REJECTING ALL the requests submitted for this competition.
- Concurrent with this announcement we are updating the ATC to reflect this decision.
- The window for monthly transmission starting December 1st is closed effective immediately and will reopen at October 8, 1999 at 00:00:00.
Additional Comments:
We would like to remind customers that in the event of our OASIS failing all requests must be faxed to (604) 473-2722. We have since corrected the clock time stamp which will be used to determine priority in queue.
We now have an official OASIS Request Fax Form on our website and can be found http://ewu.bchydro.bc.ca/gridops/documents/index.html.
Further details are available in a document called "Recapping Monthly Bidding" on our website file://ewu.bchydro.bc.ca/gridops/documents/recap of monthly bidding.xls
If you wish to receive a hard copy of the 150 faxes please email your request to Laura Letourneau at laura.letourneau@bchydro.bc.ca.