Bulletin Index 2005

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 2005 are listed below. Select another year in the drop-down to view bulletins from the archive.

Title	Bulletin Date
BCTC Internet WEB Site System Outage September 1, 7:00-7:15 am	August 31, 2:34 p.m.
BCTC Internet Web Site Outage August 29 - Delayed	August 26, 3:19 p.m.
Customer Sessions Concerning BCTC Business Practices	August 25, 4:09 p.m.
The eTag System is now up and running	August 25, 3:43 p.m.
eTag System Outage Currently in Effect	August 25, 2:25 p.m.
wesTTrans up	August 25, 3:28 a.m.
BCTC OASIS Outage Extended	August 25, 12:43 a.m.
E-Tag Up and Running	August 24, 10:23 p.m.
wesTTrans Cut-over Tonight (August 23)	August 24, 12:21 p.m.
Entering Mixed Profiles on OATI wesTTrans OASIS	August 23, 11:45 a.m.
Amended Business Practices	August 22, 3:34 p.m.
OASIS Replacement Project - Confirmed Details	August 18, 4:42 p.m.
Extended Windows for Labour Day	August 12, 9:59 a.m.
Etagging outage on August 11	August 11, 12:09 a.m.
eTag System Outage - August 11	August 11, 4:39 p.m.
BCTC Internet WEB Site System Outage	August 10, 4:27 p.m.
BCTC Schedule Rate Changes Pursuant to BCUC Order G-60-05	August 10, 3:54 p.m.
Market Operations Organizational Changes	August 10, 3:36 p.m.
eTag System Outage - 01:00 to 02:00 August 9, 2005	August 5, 11:07 a.m.
OASIS Replacement Project Update - Customer Testing	August 5, 9:37 a.m.
eTage System Outage - 1:00 to 2:00 August 4, 2005	August 2, 3:51 p.m.
Offering of Monthly Service Commencing October 1, 2005	August 1, 10:36 a.m.
eTag System Outage - CANCELLED	July 29, 4:05 p.m.
OASIS Replacement Project - UPDATE	July 29, 3:10 p.m.
eTag System Outage - 01:00 to 02:00 PDT on July 30	July 29, 2:50 p.m.
Dynamic Scheduling and Business Practice Notification	July 28, 12:18 p.m.
MCA 500 KV BUS FAULT	July 19, 9:12 p.m.
Extended Windows for New Month	July 15, 9:43 a.m.
OASIS Replacement Project - UPDATE	July 14, 4:33 p.m.
Market Operations Organization Changes and Customer Contacts	July 11, 4:00 p.m.
North West Area Transmission Options	July 8, 3:30 p.m.
OASIS Replacement Project Demo Node	June 28, 3:45 p.m.
SEL T1 UPDATE June 23	June 23, 2:05 p.m.
Bulletin Notification Subscription Function	June 17, 10:30 a.m.
Extended Window for US Holiday	June 15, 5:42 p.m.
Questions and Answers concerning Vancouver Island	June 15, 3:30 p.m.
SEL T1	June 14, 11:48 p.m.
OASIS Replacement - Training Dates CONFIRMED	June 10, 3:45 p.m.
BPAT Outage Impacts to Teck Cominco Line 71 Scheduling Rights	June 10, 2:40 p.m.
Selkirk T1 Bank - UPDATE	June 6, 9:05 a.m.
Selkirk T1 Bank	June 2, 1:50 p.m.
NITS 2004 BCH Final System Impact Study (Stage 3)	May 31, 7:09 p.m.
OASIS Replacement	May 31, 3:38 p.m.
BCTC TSS returned to service	May 30, 4:58 p.m.
TSS Outage	May 30, 4:42 p.m.
BCTC TSS Returned to Service	May 28, 6:48 p.m.
TSS Outage	May 28, 5:39 p.m.
BCTC TSS Returned to Service	May 26, 2:59 p.m.
BCTC TSS Outage	May 26, 2:33 p.m.
New BCTC Internet Site - UPDATE	May 20, 3:08 p.m.
System Operating Order 6T-34	May 20, 10:54 a.m.
Additional System Operating Orders Posted	May 18, 3:07 p.m.
A BCTC Engineering Report	May 17, 4:23 p.m.
Vancouver Island Load Shedding System Operating Order Posted	May 13, 9:26 a.m.
Extended Windows for US Holiday	May 11, 9:42 a.m.
New BCTC Internet Site	May 9, 3:42 p.m.
Scheduling Application Outage Complete	May 3, 2:08 a.m.
Scheduling Application Outage	May 3, 12:15 a.m.
REMINDER - Scheduling Application Outage - May 3, 2005	May 2, 3:07 p.m.

BCTC Internet WEB Site System Outage September 1, 7:00-7:15 am

Posted on August 31 , 2:34 p.m.

There will be a 15 minute outage of the BCTC Internet WEB site 7:00 to 7:15 a.m. Thursday September 1, 2005 for required maintenance. Realtime will take any required action to notify the market of any transmission issues during the outage. No scheduling systems will be affected.

BCTC Internet Web Site Outage August 29 - Delayed

Posted on August 26 , 3:19 p.m.

The outage originally planned for August 29 has been delayed. Customers will be notified when a new date has been set.

Customer Sessions Concerning BCTC Business Practices

Posted on August 25 , 4:09 p.m.

The British Columbia Utilities Commission has direct BCTC to file a finalized set of Business Practices with the Commission including a summary of customer comments received during the view process, for information purposes. Mark Prosperi-Porta and Doug Richardson from Market Operations would like to meet with Wholesale Transmission Service customers and interested parties for a meeting from 10:00 a.m. to 2:00 p.m. on Tuesday Sept 20, 2005 in Calgary and 9:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. on Thursday Sept 22, 2005 at our offices at Four Bentall Centre in Vancouver where we will host Business Practices discussion sessions. In these sessions we will, share Business Practices we have developed so far, receive your valuable feedback and work towards proposed changes to other BCTC Business Practices.

If you are interested, please send an email to Doug Richardson by September 7 telling us who will be attending from your company and for which city . We will post another bulletin shortly thereafter communicating further details.

Thank-you and we look forward to hearing from you.

The eTag System is now up and running

Posted on August 25 , 3:43 p.m.

The outage has now ended. Thank-you for your patience.

eTag System Outage Currently in Effect

Posted on August 25 , 2:25 p.m.

The eTag system has been taking down to adjust internal systems due to the cut-over to OATI wesTTrans OASIS. Therefore, please refer to Business Practice Section 13.3 for backup procedures during this period. We will post another bulletin when the Etag system is back up. Thank you for your patience and we apologize for this inconvenience.

wesTTrans up

Posted on August 25 , 3:28 a.m.

BCTC wesTTrans now in service, please use for transmission reservations

BCTC OASIS Outage Extended

Posted on August 25 , 12:43 a.m.

BCTC OASIS outage is extended until 04:00, we thank you for your cooperation.

E-Tag Up and Running

Posted on August 24 , 10:23 p.m.

BCTC Energy Scheduling (TSS) now processing OATI E-Tag. The schedule E-Tag outage is now complete.

wesTTrans Cut-over Tonight (August 23)

Posted on August 24 , 12:21 p.m.

This is a reminder that BCTC is cutting over from NWOASIS to wesTTrans OATI OASIS starting tonight, August 24, at 22:00 PPT and concluding at 01:00 PPT on August 25, 2005. Please refer to the bulletins posted on August 18 at 4:42 pm and August 23 at 11:45 am for details on outages, registration, new POR/PODs, queue time processing and reference identifiers, transmission processing, energy processing, and entering mixed profiles. Customers will be notified of any changes to this plan through the bulletin system.

Entering Mixed Profiles on OATI wesTTrans OASIS

Posted on August 23 , 11:45 a.m.

Due to the switch from NWOASIS to OATI wesTTrans OASIS there are subtle differences that customers need to be aware of for entering mixed profiles. When Customers are submitting a mixed profile transmission request on OATI wesTTrans OASIS, they must ensure that a price is also entered for all 0MW hours because OATI validates against this criteria. If a customer does not submit a price for a 0MW hour, OATI will display a warning to the customer stating that the price field must be populated. If a customer decides to enter $0 or a LLH price for a HLH time period where there are 0MW, the transmission request will be deemed INVALID by BCTC's automated system. Therefore, it is recommended that a customer submit a valid transmission request by simply entering the maximum tariff price, $6.4, for all 0MW hours. This will ensure that the price validation will pass and the transmission request will be processed accordingly.

Again, BCTC will be cutting over to wesTTrans OATI OASIS between the hours of 22:00 PPT on August 24, 2005 and 01:00 PPT on August 25, 2005. Please refer to the bulletin posted on August 18 at 4:42 pm for details.

Amended Business Practices

Posted on August 22 , 3:34 p.m.

As a result of the OATI wesTTrans OASIS pending implementation, many of the Business Practices have been updated. The following outlines the more significant Business Practice changes:

Section 1 - CUSTOMER RESERVATION PROCEDURES

Links and reference changes from NWOASIS to OATI wesTTans OASIS

Section 2 - TTC/ATC

Sub section 2.6 Real-time Grant Remaining Capacity - procedural changes

Section 5 - TRANSMISSION RESERVATION PROCEDURES

Sub section 5.1 Submitting a Transmission Request on OASIS
- Table one, new POR/POD pathnames BCTC.Ntwk.LD and BCTC.Internl
- Matching Requests - procedural changes
- Rebid Requests - procedural changes
- Redirect requests - procedural changes
Sub section 5.3 Scheduling Timelines – Statutory Holidays changes to NERC holidays

Section 8 - REASSIGNMENT OF TRANSMISSION RIGHTS

Overview Resale on OASIS – new OASIS functionality

Resale to Market - procedural changes
Resale to One Purchaser - procedural changes

Section 10 - SCHEDULING ENERGY ON TRANSMISSION RESERVATIONS

Some updated NERC terminology

Any questions or comments, please contact Doug Richardson

Please be advised that future changes to Business Practices will not be announced via Bulletin. Rather, customers should use the subscription service to receive e-mail notifications for Business Practices.

OASIS Replacement Project - Confirmed Details

Posted on August 18 , 4:42 p.m.

Further to the bulletins posted July 14, 2005 at 4:33 pm, July 29, 2005 at 3:10 pm, and August 5, 2005 at 9:37 am, BCTC is pleased to confirm that the cut-over date to wesTTrans OATI OASIS will occur between the hours of 22:00 PPT on August 24, 2005 and 01:00 PPT on August 25, 2005 at which time there will be an OASIS outage declared. In addition, there will be an eTag system outage between 22:00 PPT and 22:45 PPT on August 24, 2005.

Registration for wesTTrans OATI OASIS

All customers must have a registered OATI certificate, user ID, and password in order to successfully access the wesTTrans system. Contact the OATI Help Desk at (763) 201-2020 for assistance with these items. In addition, customers must also ensure that BCTC has registered their company as a valid customer on wesTTrans OATI OASIS. This can be checked by contacting Doug Richardson, Market Operations' Security Officer, at (604) 699-7513.

New POR/POD (BCTC.Internl, and BCTC.Ntwk.Ld)

Customers currently use BCTC.Internal as a POR/POD and BCTC.Netwk.Ld as a POD. Effective August 20, BCTC is adding one new POR and two new PODs. The new POR is BCTC.Internl and the new PODs are BCTC.Internl and BCTC.Ntwk.Ld. As a result of these additions, customers will see POR/PODs with similar names in the OATI eTag system prior to the wesTTrans OATI OASIS rollout. Customers must use BCTC.Internal (POR/POD) and BCTC.Netwk.Ld (POD) prior to 01:00 PPT on August 25 otherwise energy schedules will be denied. From 01:00 PPT on August 25 onwards, customers must use BCTC.Internl (new POR), and BCTC.Internl and BCTC.Ntwk.Ld (new PODs) otherwise energy schedules will be denied. However, if the outage is lifted earlier or extended later than the expected time (01:00 PPT), the new POR/PODs will become effective at that time.

QUEUE Time Processing & Reference Identifiers

Customers should be aware that the most effective way to view the BCTC OASIS queue on wesTTrans OATI OASIS, is to sort all transmission requests by the QUEUED Time column. The transmission request queue can be sorted by the QUEUED Time column, by simply clicking the column header "QUEUED Time". Customers should set the QUEUED Time column to sort in descending order, which allows customers to view the most recent transmission requests submitted to BCTC. Customers should also note that the OASIS Assignment Ref. (OASIS ID) may not always increment the ID sequentially on wesTTrans OATI OASIS and that the processing order shall be determined by the QUEUED Time and then OASIS ID.

Transmission Processing

Before the OASIS outage, all transmission requests that are submitted on NWOASIS will be processed pursuant to normal business practices. However, during the OASIS outage backup procedures will be in effect.

Any transmission request that is received during the OASIS outage period on NWOASIS will be INVALID. BCTC customers will not be able to transact on the wesTTrans OATI OASIS until the outage is lifted and normal operations resume. The outage may be lifted before the scheduled end time or it may be extended if there are issues encountered during the transition. If the transition from NWOASIS to wesTTrans is not successful, BCTC may decide to revert back and continue processing on the NWOASIS node until a new transition date can be scheduled. Customers will be notified of the transition progress through the bulletin system.

All active transmission reservations from NWOASIS will be migrated to the wesTTrans OATI OASIS node during the OASIS outage. No transmission requests will be processed on/from NWOASIS effective 22:00 PPT on August 24, 2005. All transmission requests that are submitted to NWOASIS will either be invalidated by BCTC or remain in the queued state. Inactive/old NWOASIS data and postings for past schedules (Post Schedule Details) will be available to customers for viewing and/or querying purposes after the transition to wesTTrans OATI OASIS, but no updates will occur to the NWOASIS data.

All ATC will be re-posted during the OASIS outage to reflect current BCTC availability on wesTTrans OASIS.

Energy Processing

There will be an eTag system outage between 22:00 PPT and 22:45 PPT on August 24, 2005. This eTag system outage will allow BCTC to modify relevant systems for the new POR/PODs set out above. Customers will be notified through the bulletin system if the eTag system outage is lifted earlier or extended than the expected lift time.

Extended Windows for Labour Day

Posted on August 12 , 9:59 a.m.

Market Operations is pleased to visually clarify the opening of the extended windows for purchasing transmission during the Labour Day Holiday, Monday, September 5, 2005.

Labour Day 2005 (DOC, 60KB)

Etagging outage on August 11

Posted on August 11 , 12:09 a.m.

The planned eTag System Outage on August 11, 2005 was completed at 23:00. The repairs were successful and the etagging system is working. We thank you for your patience during this outage.

eTag System Outage - August 11

Posted on August 11 , 4:39 p.m.

We are experiencing difficulties with our communication line to OATI. As a result, we need to upgrade our hardware. This will be accomplished through an outage tonight (August 11) from 21:00 to 23:30. Therefore, please refer to Business Practice Section 13.3 for backup procedures during this time period. Thank you for your patience and we apologize for this inconvenience.

BCTC Internet WEB Site System Outage

Posted on August 10 , 4:27 p.m.

There will be a 15 minute outage of the BCTC Internet WEB site 1:50 to 2:05 p.m. August 11, 2005 for required maintenance. Realtime will take any required action to notify the market of any transmission issues during the outage. No scheduling systems will be affected. We apologize for any inconvenience.

BCTC Schedule Rate Changes Pursuant to BCUC Order G-60-05

Posted on August 10 , 3:54 p.m.

Pursuant to the British Columbia Utilities Commission Order No. G-60-05, BCTC has applied changes to the following Wholesale Transmission Service rates effective 1 April 2005.

Schedule 00

The Monthly Network Transmission Revenue Requirement rate is $41,991,667.

Schedule 01

The Long-Term Firm Point-to-Point rate is $4.64 per kW of Reserved Capacity per month on paths with PORs in the Southern Interior of BC or Alberta and PODs in the Lower Mainland, Vancouver Island, or BPA. For all other paths the Long-Term Firm Point-to-Point rate is $4.22 per kW of Reserved Capacity per month.

The Short-Term Firm maximum price is $0.0064 per kW of Reserved Capacity per hour.

Schedule 02

The Short-Term Non-Firm maximum price is $0.0064 per kW of Reserved Capacity per hour.

Schedule 03

The Scheduling, System Control and Dispatch Service rate is $0.582 per MW of Reserved Capacity per hour.

Wholesale Transmission Service invoices will be retroactively adjusted back to April 1, 2005 for August 2005 billing sent out the beginning of September.

Market Operations Organizational Changes

Posted on August 10 , 3:36 p.m.

Janet Fraser is moving to the position of Manager, Market Operations and will report to the VP Customer and Strategy Development.

Laura Letourneau will assume the new position of Manager, Business Improvement reporting to Brian Gabel, VP Corporate Services and CFO.

Raj Hundal will be joining Market Operations, effective September 6, as the Scheduling/Settlements Manager reporting to Mark Prosperi-Porta, Wholesale Transmission Services Manager.

Wholesale Transmission Services is responsible for Scheduling, Settlements, Contracting, Business Practices and transmission customer relations. Contact Doug Richardson, Client Services Manager, at 604-699-7513 on Wholesale Transmission Services matters.

eTag System Outage - 01:00 to 02:00 August 9, 2005

Posted on August 5 , 11:07 a.m.

OATI is experiencing problems with its frame relay circuit. To investigate and resolve the problem BCTC is scheduling a one hour eTag system outage from 01:00 to 02:00 PDT August 9, 2005. Therefore, please refer to Business Practice Section 13.3 (pdf58k) for backup procedures. We apologize for this inconvience.

OASIS Replacement Project Update - Customer Testing

Posted on August 5 , 9:37 a.m.

Further to the bulletins posted July 14, 2005 at 4:33pm and July 29, 2005 at 3:10pm, the period for customer end user testing on the wesTTrans Demo Node (http://demo.oatioasis.com) has been extended from August 2, 2005 to August 17, 2005 inclusive. During this time period we encourage customers to submit transmission requests to a maximum of 20 per hour. Each transmission request should be limited to 1-2 MW for every hour and must contain "TSSUAT1" in the customer comments field. Transmission requests that are not entered correctly will remain in the QUEUED state and will not be processed by BCTC.

Customers who disregard the transmission request limits set out above, hindering other testing, will be disabled from submitting transmission requests to BCTC on the wesTTrans Demo Node.

Again, just a reminder that the cut-over date to the wesTTrans OATI OASIS is now scheduled to occur between the hours of 22:00 PPT on August 24, 2005 and 01:00 PPT on August 25, 2005. Customers must have a registered OATI certificate, user ID, and password in order to successfully access the wesTTrans system. Contact the OATI Help Desk at (763) 201-2020 for assistance with these items.

In addition, customers must also ensure that BCTC has registered their company as a valid customer on wesTTrans OATI OASIS. This can be accomplished during the week of August 15 by contacting Doug Richardson, Market Operations' Security Officer, at (604) 699-7513.

If you have any questions or experience serious problems, please contact Brenda Ambrosi at (604) 699-7391 or Monica Lee at (604) 699-7463.

Thank you for your continued patience and cooperation.

eTage System Outage - 1:00 to 2:00 August 4, 2005

Posted on August 2 , 3:51 p.m.

OATI is experiencing problems with its frame relay circuit. To investigate and resolve the problem BCTC is re-scheduling a one hour eTag system outage from 01:00 to 02:00 PDT August 4, 2005. Therefore, please refer to Business Practice Section 13.3, eTag System Outage, for backup procedures. We apologize for this inconvience.

Offering of Monthly Service Commencing October 1, 2005

Posted on August 1 , 10:36 a.m.

Due to a posting problem, Monthly transmission bidding starting October 1, 2005 onward will be available for purchase at 00:00:00 on August 2, 2005.

eTag System Outage - CANCELLED

Posted on July 29 , 4:05 p.m.

Further to the bulletin posted July 29 at 2:50 pm, the eTag system outage is cancelled until further notice. We apologize for this inconvenience.

OASIS Replacement Project - UPDATE

Posted on July 29 , 3:10 p.m.

Further to the bulletin posted July 14, 2005 at 4:33 pm, the cut-over date to the wesTTrans OATI OASIS is now scheduled to occur between the hours of 22:00 PPT on August 24, 2005 and 01:00 PPT on August 25, 2005. Please refer to the July 14, 2005 bulletin for details.

Again, just a reminder that all customers must have a registered OATI certificate, user ID, and password in order to successfully access the wesTTrans system. Contact the OATI Help Desk at (763) 201-2020 for assistance with these items. In addition, customers must also ensure that BCTC has registered their company as a valid customer on wesTTrans OATI OASIS. This can be accomplished during the week of August 15 by contacting Doug Richardson, Market Operations' Security Officer, at (604) 699-7513.

If you have questions or experience serious problems contact Brenda Ambrosi (604) 699-7391 or Monica Lee at (604) 699-7463.

Thank you for your patience and cooperation regarding this matter.

eTag System Outage - 01:00 to 02:00 PDT on July 30

Posted on July 29 , 2:50 p.m.

OATI is experiencing problems with its frame relay circuit. To investigate and resolve the problem, a one hour eTag system outage from 01:00 to 02:00 PDT is required. Therefore, please refer to Business Practice Section 13.3, eTag System Outage, for backup procedures. We apologize for this inconvience.

Dynamic Scheduling and Business Practice Notification

Posted on July 28 , 12:18 p.m.

Further to the Bulletins of April 8, 2005 and March 20, 2005, BCTC is pleased to announce that it can facilitate Dynamic Scheduling to receiving Control Areas. As such, the ability to Dynamic Schedule is effective July 30, 2005. Attachment O of the Open Access Transmission Tariff, Business Practice 11.6 and the Dynamic Scheduling, BCTC Transmission Service Fax Request Form set out the Dynamic Scheduling requirements and expectations.

Please be advised that future changes to Business Practices will not be announced via Bulletin. Rather, customers should use the subscription service to receive email notifications for Business Practices.

MCA 500 KV BUS FAULT

Posted on July 19 , 9:12 p.m.

MCA 500 KV BUS FAULT - 5L72 forced oos

1. 5D2CB8 faulted @ 16:03 on 2005/07/18.

2. MCA crews responded to switch and isolate the zone. 5L72 OOS for the duration of repair.

3.Gas samples are being sent to the lab to determine the extent of gas contamination.

4. Crews are mobilizing to determine cause of fault and repairs necessary. It is expected that by late afternoon a better idea of the cause and damage will be known.

5. Crews will work on shift to expedite repairs .

6. The outage duration is expected to be about 7 days pending unknowns.

Extended Windows for New Month

Posted on July 15 , 9:43 a.m.

Market Operations is pleased to visually clarify the opening of the extended windows for purchasing transmission during the New Month, Monday, August 1, 2005.

Extended Windows for New Month (DOC, 47.5KB)

OASIS Replacement Project - UPDATE

Posted on July 14 , 4:33 p.m.

Further to the bulletin posted May 31, 2005 at 3:38 pm, the tentative cut-over date to the wesTTrans OATI OASIS is now scheduled to occur between the hours of 22:00 PPT on August 8, 2005 and 01:00 PPT on August 9, 2005 during which time an OASIS outage will be declared. In addition, there will be an eTag system outage between 22:00 PPT and 22:45 PPT on August 8, 2005.

Transmission Processing
Before the OASIS outage, all transmission requests that are submitted on NWOASIS will be processed pursuant to normal business practices. However, during the OASIS outage backup procedures will be in effect.

All active transmission reservations from NWOASIS will be migrated to the wesTTrans OATI OASIS node during the OASIS outage. No transmission requests will be processed on/from NWOASIS effective 22:00 PPT on August 8, 2005. All transmission requests that are submitted to NWOASIS will either be invalidated by BCTC or remain in the queued state. Inactive/old NWOASIS data and postings for past schedules (Post Schedule Details) will be available to customers for viewing and/or querying purposes after the cut-over date, but no updates will occur on this NWOASIS data.

All ATC will be re-posted during the OASIS outage to reflect current BCTC availability on wesTTrans OASIS.

Note: All customers must have a registered OATI certificate, user ID, and password in order to successfully access the wesTTrans system. Contact the OATI Help Desk at (763) 201-2020 for assistance with these items. In addition, customers must also ensure that BCTC has registered their company as a valid customer on wesTTrans OATI OASIS. This can be accomplished during the week of August 1 by contacting Doug Richardson (doug.richardson@bctc.com), Market Operations' Security Officer, at (604) 699-7513.

Energy Processing & POR/POD Name Change
There will be an eTag system outage between 22:00 PPT and 22:45 PPT on August 8, 2005. This eTag system outage will allow BCTC to modify relevant systems for the following POR/POD points and their new names: BCTC.Internl and BCTC.Ntwk.Ld. Customers will be notified through the bulletin system once the eTag system outage is lifted.

Customer Testing
Customers can perform end user testing between July 18, 2005 and August 2, 2005, inclusive, on the wesTTrans Demo Node (http://demo.oatioasis.com). During this time period we encourage customers to submit transmission requests to a maximum of 20 per hour. Each transmission request should be limited to 1-2 MW for every hour and must contain "TSSUAT1" in the customer comments field. Transmission requests that are not entered correctly will remain in the QUEUED state and will not be processed by BCTC.

Customers who disregard the transmission request limits set out above, hindering other testing, will be disabled from submitting transmission requests to BCTC on the wesTTrans Demo Node.

If you have questions or experience serious problems contact Brenda Ambrosi(brenda.ambrosi@bctc.com) at (604) 699-7391 or Monica Lee(monica.lee@bctc.com) at (604) 699-7463.

Thank you for your patience and cooperation regarding this matter.

Market Operations Organization Changes and Customer Contacts

Posted on July 11 , 4:00 p.m.

Market Operations has been restructured into three functional areas to better meet market demands and increase customer service. The three functional areas are:

Wholesale Transmission Service
Interconnections
Market Information

doug.richardson@bctc.com

Interconnections is responsible for all interconnection of transmission voltage to the BC transmission system. Send an e-mail to bctc.interconnection@bctc.com to start the process and get interconnected to the BC transmission system.

Market Information Services is responsible for customer service planning, research and analysis work.

North West Area Transmission Options

Posted on July 8 , 3:30 p.m.

In compliance with the British Columbia Transmission Corporation’s Standards of Conduct we are pleased to post the North West Area Transmission Options Report (SPA 2005-24) on BCTC’s website.

This technical report is an analysis of various transmission reinforcement options that might serve to integrate potential loads and generation in Northwest British Columbia. The analysis and cost estimates in this report were made in July 2004 based on the load forecast information available at that time. While load forecasts may change over time, the transfer capabilities of the possible transmission options analyzed remains valid. If and when a commitment to reinforce the North West is made, planning studies will be initiated to review these options at a more detailed level.

Since July 2004 there have been updates to area load forecasts which could affect the transmission option requirement. Based on the information to date, the total demand could be in the range of 140MW at the first stage which would require a non 138kV transmission option (for example the 287kV transmission) immediately to serve the load adequately.

As reinforcement of the North West has not yet entered the planning stage, this report does not address regulatory approvals, financing and cost allocation, First Nations consultation, environmental issues and approvals, acquisition of rights-of way, or access and constructability. The cost estimates in this report are based on typical construction costs for the various transmission alternatives and assume a routing that generally follows Highway 37 but would not be on the Highway right-of-way.

An independent review of the cost estimates was performed by Chesterman Consulting Inc. and is posted along with this report.

North West Area Transmission Options (PDF, 84KB)
Cost Estimate Review - NW Transmission (PDF, 28KB)

OASIS Replacement Project Demo Node

Posted on June 28 , 3:45 p.m.

In reference to the bulletin posted on May 31, 2005 (3:38pm); BCTCis currently in the process of moving its OASIS service from BPA'sNWOASIS node to the OATI wesTTrans common OASIS.

To ensure a smooth transition, BCTC has embarked upon system testingon the OATI OASIS demo node. BCTC encourages customerparticipation and is committed to working with customers. However, we request that customers refrain from using the demo siteuntil we have concluded our testing, as some customer submissions havebeen found to interfere with test results. We will post a furtherbulletin in late July, informing customers when they can resume testsubmissions.

We apologize for any inconvenience and thank you in advance for your patience.

SEL T1 UPDATE June 23

Posted on June 23 , 2:05 p.m.

SEL T1 will be returned to service before March/2006. New single phase transformer is being bought to replace the failed unit.

Failed unit will be shipped to a transformer shop to determine what caused the failure and whether it can be repaired or not.

Next week additional radiators will be installed on SEL T2 and BCTC is expecting to increase the capacity by 60-80 MW (30-40 MW on each bank).

Bulletin Notification Subscription Function

Posted on June 17 , 10:30 a.m.

The bulletin subscription function connected to the new BCTC WEB is now functioning.The three bulletins that were not notified through the subscription service since June 14, 2005. are:

SEL T1 June 14, 2005

Questions and Answers concerning Vancouver Island June 15, 2005

Extended Windows for US Holidays June 15, 2005

Any questions, please contact doug.richardson@bctc.com

Extended Window for US Holiday

Posted on June 15 , 5:42 p.m.

Market Operations is pleased to visually clarify the opening of the extended windows for purchasing transmission during the US Independence Day, Monday July 4th, 2005.

Extended Windows for US Holiday (DOC, 55KB)

Questions and Answers concerning Vancouver Island

Posted on June 15 , 3:30 p.m.

BCTC has responded to several questions from a Transmission Customer related on the subject of Lower Mainland to Vancouver Island supply. The questions and answers can be found under the Specific Studies section of our Engineering Reports and Studies page Questions and Answers concerning Vancouver Island Supply (PDF, 15KB).

SEL T1

Posted on June 14 , 11:48 p.m.

SEL TRANSFORMER CAPACITY WITHOUT T1:

As per SOO 7T34 SEL T2 and T3 are good for 1400 MW to 1800 MW depending on the ambient temperature.

30 deg C 1400 MVA

20 deg C 1500 MVA

10 deg C 1600 MVA

0 deg C 1700 MVA

-10 deg C 1800 MVA

OASIS Replacement - Training Dates CONFIRMED

Posted on June 10 , 3:45 p.m.

Further to customer responses received from the bulletin posted on 31 May 2005 @ 15:38, OATI will be providing customer training on the wesTTrans common OASIS on behalf of BCTC at BCTC’s System Control Centre in Burnaby, BC. As space is limited for each session, confirmation of attendance will be on a first-come, first-served basis via e-mail response.

The meeting times are as follows:

5 July 2005
8:00 am – 12:00 pm
1:00 pm - 5:00 pm

6 July 2005
8:00 am – 12:00 pm
1:00 pm - 5:00 pm

Additional Notes

A light breakfast or a light lunch will be provided.

Customers who have an OATI webCares certificate need to contact the OATI Help Desk at (763)201-2020 if they currently do NOT have login access to wesTTrans OASIS. However, If customers do not have an OATI webCares certificate, or only have a DST certificate for access to NWOASIS, they need to go through the webCares registration process with the OATI Help Desk at (763)201-2020 and then be registered in wesTTrans OASIS. In addition, customers will need to register for the wesTTrans Demo OASIS Node through the OATI Help Desk at (763)201-2020 in order to participate in training/testing in July.

Please send an e-mail to Monica Lee or Brenda Ambrosi by 27 June 2005 with the following details:

Company name and contact name;
Business address and phone number;
First and second choices for session date and session time;
Name(s) of Attendees;
Specific topics you would like to see covered in the session; and
If you require directions to the Burnaby Mountain System Control Centre.

We look forward to meeting with you.

BPAT Outage Impacts to Teck Cominco Line 71 Scheduling Rights

Posted on June 10 , 2:40 p.m.

A market participant asked BCTC whether BPAT's posted limit of 0 on the Eastern Northern Intertie (ENI) beginning June 13 impacts Teck Cominco's Line 71 scheduling rights. BCTC does not separately schedule the west (5L51 and 5L52) and east (2L112 and Line 71) interties that make up the BC-US interconnection. The BPAT limitations on the ENI related to the Lower Granite to Hatwai 500 kV line outage commencing June 13 does not impact Teck Cominco's Line 71 scheduling rights. For more information on Teck Cominco's Line 71 rights, please refer to the June 28, 2002 bulletin. Thank you.

Selkirk T1 Bank - UPDATE

Posted on June 6 , 9:05 a.m.

Internal inspection revealed that failure of Selkirk T1 was caused by winding failure rather than bushing failure. The outage could be extended to 9-12 months.

BCTC will be looking for options, some of which include:

temporary re-location of existing system transformers from lower priority installations
increased cooling options for existing T2 and T3 transformers
repair of existing transformer at vendor factory
replace existing transformer with new unit
detailed condition/design assessment of remaining 2 phases
accelerate T4 project

Another update will be provided in a month.

Selkirk T1 Bank

Posted on June 2 , 1:50 p.m.

One of the three single-phase transformers that make up the Selkirk T1 bank has failed this past Sunday, May 29. The entire bank was taken out of service and will remain out of service pending investigation and assessment of any damage.

A report is expected early next week.

A preliminary estimate at this time shows that it may take between two weeks and two months before the bank can return to service.

NITS 2004 BCH Final System Impact Study (Stage 3)

Posted on May 31 , 7:09 p.m.

The NITS 2004 BCH final System Impact Study (Stage 3) has been posted.

OASIS Replacement

Posted on May 31 , 3:38 p.m.

BCTC is currently in the process of moving its OASIS service from BPA’s NWOASIS node to the OATI wesTTrans common OASIS. The cut-over to wesTTrans is tentatively scheduled for August 1, 2005.

BCTC is committed to working with customers in understanding impacts and taking suggestions for mitigation to ensure a smooth transition for all affected parties. To achieve this objective, OATI will be providing customer training on the wesTTrans OASIS on behalf of BCTC at BCTC’s System Control Center in Burnaby, BC. We would like feedback from you regarding interest, preferred dates (July 5, 6, 7 or 8), and specific OASIS topics and/or demonstrations that you would like to have presented. Please send an e-mail to Brenda Ambrosi with this feedback by June 3, 2005. We will post another bulletin shortly thereafter communicating these details. Further bulletins will follow setting out other pertinent information such as OASIS transition details.

Thank you and we look forward to hearing from you.

BCTC TSS returned to service

Posted on May 30 , 4:58 p.m.

BCTC TSS has returned to service. Normal scheduling procedures can now be followed

TSS Outage

Posted on May 30 , 4:42 p.m.

BCTC TSS forced outage is now in effect. Backup procedures are in effect BCTC will not accept any manual transmission requests

BCTC TSS Returned to Service

Posted on May 28 , 6:48 p.m.

BCTC TSS has returned to service. Normal scheduling procedures can now be followed.

TSS Outage

Posted on May 28 , 5:39 p.m.

BCTC TSS forced outage is now in effect. Backup procedures are in effect. BCTC will not accept any manual transmission requests.

BCTC TSS Returned to Service

Posted on May 26 , 2:59 p.m.

BCTC TSS has returned to service. Normal scheduling procedures can now be followed.

BCTC TSS Outage

Posted on May 26 , 2:33 p.m.

BCTC TSS forced outage is now in effect. Backup procedures are in effect. BCTC will not accept any manual transmission requests.

New BCTC Internet Site - UPDATE

Posted on May 20 , 3:08 p.m.

Further to the bulletin posted on May 9, 2005 @ 15:42, BCTC will be delaying the launch of its new internet site to June 13-14 from May 24-25. Specifically, the launch will occur between 19:00 PPT on June 13 and 00:00 PPT on June 14. Thank you for your patience.

System Operating Order 6T-34

Posted on May 20 , 10:54 a.m.

System Operating Order 6T-34 has been updated. The new version can be found here.

Additional System Operating Orders Posted

Posted on May 18 , 3:07 p.m.

Additional System Operating Orders have been posted to BCTC's website.

A BCTC Engineering Report

Posted on May 17 , 4:23 p.m.

Probability Distribution of HVDC Capacity and Impacts of Two Key Components - BCTC SPA R003, May 2, 2004 has been posted under the Engineering Reports and Studies section, System Planning Studies, of the BCTC website.

Vancouver Island Load Shedding System Operating Order Posted

Posted on May 13 , 9:26 a.m.

The System Operating Order (SOO) 6T-28C has been posted to BCTC's website.

Extended Windows for US Holiday

Posted on May 11 , 9:42 a.m.

Market Operations is pleased to visually clarify the opening of the extended windows for purchasing transmission during the US Memorial Day, Monday 30 May, 2005.

New BCTC Internet Site

Posted on May 9 , 3:42 p.m.

BCTC is pleased to announce that it has redesigned its internet site. Both the user interface and the information architecture of the site has been improved for stakeholders. BCTC plans on launching the new site between 19:00 PPT on May 24 and 00:00 PPT on May 25. The cut-over will be instantaneous. However, if users are on BCTC’s internet site at the exact time of cut-over, they will get a 404 error page when they click on a link stating that there is a new site. Users will not automatically be redirected, but rather will be given links to BCTC’s home page and other key pages. After the cut-over, users will also get the 404 error page and messaging when attempting to use old bookmarks. Therefore, please ensure that your bookmarks are updated to reflect BCTC’s new internet site.

Scheduling Application Outage Complete

Posted on May 3 , 2:08 a.m.

BCTC Scheduling Application planned outage is now in complete. Normal scheduling procedures can now be followed.

Scheduling Application Outage

Posted on May 3 , 12:15 a.m.

BCTC Scheduling Application planned outage is now in effect. Official backup procedures are required for scheduling with BCTC. A subsequent bulletin will be posted when normal procedures can be followed.

REMINDER - Scheduling Application Outage - May 3, 2005

Posted on May 2 , 3:07 p.m.

Just a reminder that BCTC is planning a Scheduling Application outage tomorrow, May 3, 2005 from 12:15 am to 4:15 am. The purpose of this outage is to replace hardware and perform software upgrades, which will minimize outages and allow for software updates in the future. The Business Practice for this type of outage is as follows:

Transmission Reservations

The Real-time Office will not post any further ATC to OASIS until the Scheduling Application is restored. All transmission requests received during the official outage time will be REFUSED.

Energy Schedules

The Real-time Office will rely on the Alberta and BPA operators to establish the net schedule capacity amounts for each operating hour in which the system is down. BCTC will not be processing eTags, so any eTags that are "late" will be DENIED without BCTC's active approval. Adjustments/credits may be made after-the-fact.

Again, we apologize for this inconvenience.