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 phone problems	January 20, 2:05 a.m.
BCTC announces consultation sessions to review the implementation of BC's new Open Access Transmission Tariff	December 21, 3:35 p.m.
Extended Windows for Christmas Day	December 14, 9:01 a.m.
Extended Windows for New Year's Day	December 14, 9:19 a.m.
eTag System Outage - 00:00 to 00:30 PST on November 30, 2005	November 24, 3:33 p.m.
Contact Preschedule on Saturday November 19, 2005	November 19, 9:36 a.m.
Scheduling Application Update - EAL Name Change AESO	November 16, 9:29 a.m.
Transmission Request Processing on October 21, 2005	November 15, 2:26 p.m.
Extended Windows for Thanksgiving Day	November 13, 9:13 a.m.
Feasibility Study For Sea Breeze Victoria Converter Corporation Juan de Fuca HVDC Light Project	November 10, 1:50 p.m.
BCTC Scheduling return	November 9, 4:30 a.m.
BCTC Scheduled outage	November 9, 2:00 a.m.
Scheduling System Outage - Nov 9th, 2005	November 2, 6:37 p.m.
Extended Windows for Veteran's Day	October 28, 1:32 p.m.
BC Hydro NITS 2004 Facilities Study	October 28, 6:25 p.m.
New Information Releases Concerning System Transfer Capability	October 28, 6:24 p.m.
OATI OASIS Outage is Over	October 21, 2:32 p.m.
OATI Oasis Outage	October 21, 12:29 p.m.
Scheduling Application update complete (FBC)	October 18, 11:45 p.m.
Scheduling Application Update - West Kootenay Power Name Change to Fortis BC	October 14, 3:42 p.m.
Extended Windows for NWPP Schedulers Meeting	October 5, 1:34 p.m.
September 28, 2005 Processing Issues	October 5, 8:43 a.m.
Restoring of a Few Previous Bulletins	September 27, 3:37 p.m.
Extended Windows for Columbus Day	September 26, 2:39 p.m.
SEL T1 UPDATE Sep 2005	September 18, 2:07 p.m.
Customer Sessions Concerning BCTC Business Practices - Cancelled	September 13, 3:28 p.m.
Extended Windows for New Month	September 12, 10:49 a.m.
BCTC Internet WEB Site System Outage is Now Over	September 1, 10:22 a.m.

BCTC phone problems

Posted on January 20 , 2:05 a.m.

BCTC is experiencing phone problems. If you have problems reaching our Real Time scheduling desk on our regular phone number, please call 604-298-7822 as a back up.

BCTC announces consultation sessions to review the implementation of BC's new Open Access Transmission Tariff

Posted on December 21 , 3:35 p.m.

In June 2005, the British Columbia Utilities Commission (BCUC) issued its decision on the BC Transmission Corporation (BCTC) Open Access Transmission Tariff Application (OATT).

As a result of the Commission’s decision, BCTC has undertaken a process of reviewing and updating the business practices for short-term and long-term transmission service. BCTC is now seeking input from customers and other interested parties before finalizing these business practices.

Also at this time, BCTC will also be seeking stakeholder input into the development of a new Network Economy Services tariff provision and opportunities for re-dispatch and transmission load management.

Further information and meeting agendas will be posted by January 6 on our web site at: www.bctc.com. An email notification will also be issued once this information is posted.

Meeting details:

Calgary:

January 17, 2006

8:00am – 3pm

Westin Hotel

320 Fourth Avenue S.W.

Vancouver:

January 19, 2006

8:00am – 3pm

Hyatt Regency Hotel

655 Burrard Street

For further information, please contact Doug Richardson at 604-699-7513, or doug.richardson@bctc.com.

Extended Windows for Christmas Day

Posted on December 14 , 9:01 a.m.

Market Operations is pleased to visually clarify the opening of the extended windows for purchasing transmission during the Christmas Day.

Extended Windows for Christmas Day (DOC, 62KB)

Extended Windows for New Year's Day

Posted on December 14 , 9:19 a.m.

Market Operations is pleased to visually clarify the opening of the extended windows for purchasing transmission during the New Year's Day.

Extended Windows for New Year's Day (DOC, 56KB)

eTag System Outage - 00:00 to 00:30 PST on November 30, 2005

Posted on November 24 , 3:33 p.m.

A half hour eTag system outage from 00:00 to 00:30 PST on November 30, 2005
is required for routine hardware maintenance. Therefore, please refer to Business Practice Section 13.3, eTag System Outage (PDF, 54KB), for backup procedures. We apologize for this inconvenience.

Any questions contact Doug Richardson

Contact Preschedule on Saturday November 19, 2005

Posted on November 19 , 9:36 a.m.

Due to power outage at the Bentall Centre, preschedule is operating out at office in Burnaby Mountain today. For Saturday November 19th only, please direct any inquires regarding preschedule to phone number 604-293-5840 or at cell number 604-831-7568. Sorry for the inconvenience.

Scheduling Application Update - EAL Name Change AESO

Posted on November 16 , 9:29 a.m.

Effective 1:00 PM PPT on 29 November 2005 BCTC will be modifying internal systems to reflect the renaming of EAL to AESO. The name change will impact the path fields listed on TSIN and OASIS. BCTC requires an outage to the Scheduling Application and OASIS on 29 November from 1:00 PM to 1:30 PM PPT to facilitate an internal system upgrade and to make this name change (refer to BCTC Business Practices, Section 13 Back-up Procedures for BCTC Scheduling System Outages).

Before the outage, customers must continue to use the path names with EAL on OASIS. After the outage, customers will only be able to use path names with AESO on OASIS. If there are any changes to the aforementioned release plan, customers will be notified by bulletin. Thank you for your patience and cooperation.

Please contact Doug Richardson for more information.

Transmission Request Processing on October 21, 2005

Posted on November 15 , 2:26 p.m.

BCTC experienced a scheduling system irregularity on Friday October 21, 2005 that affected displacement processing and request confirmations for October 22, 2005. BCTC completed a full investigation of the irregularity and the result was that OASIS No. 70535044 was refused when it should have been confirmed, and subsequent requests, namely OASIS No.’s 70535110, 70535134, and 70535315, were confirmed when they should have been refused. To prevent this situation from reoccurring, BCTC has implemented a practice where a full OASIS/TSS outage will be called when addressing displacement processing issues. We apologize for the inconvenience.

Please contact Doug Richardson for further information.

Extended Windows for Thanksgiving Day

Posted on November 13 , 9:13 a.m.

Market Operations is pleased to visually clarify the opening of the extended windows for purchasing transmission during Thanksgiving Day, Thursday, November 24, 2005.

Extended Windows for Thanksgiving Day (DOC, 57.5KB)

Feasibility Study For Sea Breeze Victoria Converter Corporation Juan de Fuca HVDC Light Project

Posted on November 10 , 1:50 p.m.

BCTC has published a study concerning a proposed Sea Breeze project. The study can be found on our website under Specific Studies - Other

https://sustain.bctc.com/the_transmission_system/engineering_reports_studies/

BCTC Scheduling return

Posted on November 9 , 4:30 a.m.

BCTC Scheduling systems are back on-line. Normal scheduling practices resumed. Please contact BCTC real time scheduling if any technical problems persist.

Contact Doug Richardson with any comments on the outage process.

BCTC Scheduled outage

Posted on November 9 , 2:00 a.m.

BCTC planned outage of all scheduling systems, including OASIS, eTag System and BCTC Scheduling Application has started. Outage is scheduled until 4:30 am. The purpose of this outage is to upgrade the BCTC Scheduling Application’s database.

Please contact BCTC real time scheduling with any questions.

Scheduling System Outage - Nov 9th, 2005

Posted on November 2 , 6:37 p.m.

BCTC is planning an outage of all scheduling systems, including OASIS, eTag System and BCTC Scheduling Application, on Wednesday November 9, 2005 from 2:00 am to 4:30 am. The purpose of this outage is to upgrade the BCTC Scheduling Application’s database.

Customers are asked to please submit all transmission requests and energy tags for the time period of the outage prior to the outage, as 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.

Please contact Doug Richardson with any questions or concerns.

We apologize for this inconvenience.

Extended Windows for Veteran's Day

Posted on October 28 , 1:32 p.m.

Market Operations is pleased to visually clarify the opening of the extended windows for purchasing transmission during Veteran's Day, Friday, November 11, 2005.

Extended Window for Veteran's Day (DOC, 54KB)

BC Hydro NITS 2004 Facilities Study

Posted on October 28 , 6:25 p.m.

BCTC has published a Facilities Study for BC Hydro Distribution NITS 2004. The study can be found on our website under the Facilities Study section at

http://www.bctc.com/the_transmission_system/engineering_reports_studies/

New Information Releases Concerning System Transfer Capability

Posted on October 28 , 6:24 p.m.

BCTC has published four new information releases describing transmission system transfer capability limits in the Lower Mainland, Vancouver Island, Southern Interior, and Northern Interior regions. These can be found on our website under the Specific Studies section at

http://www.bctc.com/the_transmission_system/engineering_reports_studies/

OATI OASIS Outage is Over

Posted on October 21 , 2:32 p.m.

BCTC OASIS has returned to service. Normal scheduling procedures can now be followed. Further to our previous bulletin regarding the OASIS outage, BCTC may have experienced difficulties in processing reservations in the correct manner. BCTC is investigating the situation and will post a bulletin with our findings once a thorough analysis has been completed.

OATI Oasis Outage

Posted on October 21 , 12:29 p.m.

Effective immediately, BCTC will be declaring an OASIS outage. We will notify customers when ths outage has ended. Therefore, please refer to Business Practice Section 13.2 for backup procedures during this time period. Thank you for your patience and we apologize for this inconvenience.

Scheduling Application update complete (FBC)

Posted on October 18 , 11:45 p.m.

Scheduling application and OASIS restored ( from scheduled 23:00 outage ). Normal scheduling procedures to be resumed. Please refer to new codes (FBC) for correct use.

If any problems persist please contact real time scheduling or Doug Richardson ( during business hours ).

Thanks for your cooperation.

Scheduling Application Update - West Kootenay Power Name Change to Fortis BC

Posted on October 14 , 3:42 p.m.

Effective 23:00 PPT on 18 October 2005, the TSIN registry will be updated to reflect the renaming of West Kootenay Power to Fortis BC. The name change will impact the entity code, PSE entry, source/sink, and path fields. As a result, BCTC requires an outage to the Scheduling Application and OASIS on 18 October 2005 from 23:00 to 23:30 PPT to facilitate this change (refer to BCTC Business Practices, Section 13 Back-up Procedures for BCTC Scheduling System Outages).

The code for Fortis BC will be FBC. Once FBC is downloaded by eTag vendors, it will be available for eTags. However, before the outage, customers must continue to use WKP path names, source/sink points, and PSE on OASIS and eTags. After the outage, customers will only be able to use FBC on OASIS, and must use the new FBC codes for paths, source/sink points, and PSE on their eTags.

If there are any changes to the aforementioned release plan, customers will be notified by bulletin. Thank you for your patience and cooperation.

Please contact Doug Richardson for more information.

Extended Windows for NWPP Schedulers Meeting

Posted on October 5 , 1:34 p.m.

Market Operations is pleased to visually clarify the opening of the extended windows for purchasing transmission during the NWPP Schedulers Meeting Tuesday/Wednesday, October 18-19, 2005.

Extended Windows for NWPP Schedulers Meeting (DOC, 57.5KB)

September 28, 2005 Processing Issues

Posted on October 5 , 8:43 a.m.

BCTC experienced an OASIS WesTTrans processing issue at 00:00:00 September 28, 2005 for transmission on September 29th and 30Th, 2005. Some transmission requests remained queued and were not processed.

OATI determined that a number of transmission requests were entered into OASIS at precisely the same time as an automated process attempted to read and transfer these requests to BCTC. The result was an unsuccessful transfer to BCTC and the requests remained queued in OASIS.

In order to avoid this from re-occurring, BCTC and OATI have tested a solution that will be implemented into production October 5, 2005.

For information, attached is a table showing transactions in question along with OASIS queued time to milliseconds.

While BCTC participated on the NWOASIS node, BCTC received time values associated with transmission requests that were accurate to the millisecond. As of October 5, 2005, BCTC will receive time values from OATI OASIS that are accurate to the millisecond.

Please send any questions you may have to Doug Richardson

Restoring of a Few Previous Bulletins

Posted on September 27 , 3:37 p.m.

Some Bulletins originally posted January 2005 and attachments to the 1999 Bulletin "Real Time Scheduling Limitation - November 21"concerning Spinning Reserves and a 1999 September 30 / October 1 competition for monthly transmission have been restored to this WEB site.

Extended Windows for Columbus Day

Posted on September 26 , 2:39 p.m.

Market Operations is pleased to visually clarify the opening of the extended windows for purchasing transmission during Columbus Day, Monday, October 10, 2005.

Extended Windows for Columbus Day (DOC, 55KB)

SEL T1 UPDATE Sep 2005

Posted on September 18 , 2:07 p.m.

SEL T1 UPDATE Sep/2005:

Single phase 500/230 KV 400 MVA new transformer has been ordered and scheduled delivery date is in February 2006. The plan is to place it into service before the end of March 2006.

Contingency plan is being prepared in case there is some unforeseen delay. The spare 233 MVA transformer located at SEL will be placed into T1 position and T1 bank can be returned to service at approx 700 MVA bank rating rather than 1200 MVA. It will be considered as a rare event. This will result in up to 2% negative sequence current and up to 0.5% negative sequence voltages which should be acceptable to the generators. The generator owners are being requested to consult with the generator manufactures to confirm that this assumption is correct.

The spare transformer is for T2 and T3 banks at SEL.

Customer Sessions Concerning BCTC Business Practices - Cancelled

Posted on September 13 , 3:28 p.m.

Further to the bulletin posted August 25, 2005 at 4:09 p.m. the Customer sessions concerning BCTC Business Practices in Calgary September 20 and Vancouver September 22 are cancelled until further notice. We apologize for any inconvenience.

Extended Windows for New Month

Posted on September 12 , 10:49 a.m.

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