TEPPC Value Proposition3
Background
The WECC Board of Directors created TEPPC to oversee transmission planning and policy for the Western Interconnection. TEPPC has created a variety of planning reports for many years. Particularly since 2010, TEPPC has expanded the breadth and depth of its planning activities, adding many data sets, tools and reports to its portfolio, culminating in the comprehensive 2013 WECC Interconnection-wide Transmission Plan.
In February, 2015, TEPPC approved a “hybrid” approach to reporting on its work products. To assist in prioritizing its future work, TEP staff solicited input from some of TEPPC’s stakeholders on how they value and apply TEPPC’s work products. The following report is based on the feedback received from stakeholders and focuses on ways that they are currently using the data, tools and reports that TEPPC produces.
Western Electricity Coordinating Council
TEPPC Value Proposition12
Work Product / User / Description of Uses /1. Data Bases
General Comments / The data and models created to facilitate interconnection-wide transmission planning are perhaps the most utilized and broadly valued products. Like other data and models created by WECC, this information serves as the foundation for many other planning activities. This inherently creates a common foundation of information so that results from multiple efforts can be compared. From a broad public policy perspective, the consistency and quality of the data and models assures that WECC and other planning entities use the best available information from across the Interconnection.
• Technology performance, capital cost, and environmental data.
• Internally consistent data and assumptions across the entire Interconnection.
• Industry-leading data and models for renewable energy and distributed resources provided by WECC’s partnership with National Laboratories and universities.
• Consensus–based descriptions and quantification of impacts of enacted and proposed state and federal public policy (e.g., RPS, DSM, DG).
• Assumptions consistent with state- and provincial-approved forecasts.
1.1. Common Case / California Energy Commission (CEC) / · Performs production simulation studies—congestion mitigation studies and specific transmission line upgrades (in GridView).
· Performs production simulation studies—renewable integration (in PLEXOS).
· Conducts preliminary analysis of whether AB 32 would meet EPA’s power plant GHG reduction targets.
· Analyzes gas burn from generators for natural gas assessment in Integrated Energy Policy Report (IEPR).
California ISO / · Performs Transmission Planning Process (TPP) economic analyses for regions outside of BA.
· Performs operating flexibility analysis to support the CPUC Long-Term Procurement Plan (LTPP).
· Uses as starting point for modeling enhancements and building multi-year cases.
· Uses in transmission planning (TP) studies that feature a detailed nodal model with a focus on studying grid congestion and economic assessment of transmission upgrades. The nodal model is also used in transmission studies for policy-driven upgrades for renewable integration.
· Uses in resource adequacy (RA) studies that use a zonal or nodal model to study operational behaviors of the resource fleet. The RA studies focus on analysis of renewable integration, system flexibility needs, storage dispatch, thermal generation cycling, GHG emissions, etc. Also, in a near-term zonal model, a study runs stochastic simulations to analyze supply and demand balance to make sure that the system has adequate resources in the coming year’s operations.
· Uses in Energy Imbalance Market (EIM) studies that assess potential economic benefits of real-time joint-dispatch over a wider footprint across multiple BAs. Based on economic justifications of the EIM studies, the ISO implemented the PacifiCorp-ISO EIM in November 2014; and in November 2015, NV Energy will another entity participating in the EIM. The EIM studies were performed on hourly models. In recent studies, the ISO advanced the database to a sub-hourly model with sequential dispatch of Day Ahead, Hour Ahead and Real-Time.
California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) stakeholders / · Completes studies of flexibility requirements (using results of PLEXOS studies completed by CEC).
PacifiCorp / · Uses data from Common Case to perform economic studies required by FERC Orders 890 and 1000.
Northern Tier Transmission Group (NTTG) / · Uses data from Common Case to perform economic studies required by FERC Order 1000.
Energy + Environmental Economics (E3) / · Uses Common Case data in Energy Imbalance Market (EIM) study for CAISO, PacfiCorp and other transmission developers.
· Uses Common Case as a starting point to support other planning studies such as WIEB’s gas-electric integration study cases and EIM studies.
· Uses the Common Case (along with other entities, such as SCE, the CAISO, and the CPUC) as a starting point for resource planning studies
· Uses renewable resource shapes from the Common Case for a variety of regulatory processes in California (e.g., energy efficiency avoided cost calculator).
U.S. Department of Interior / · Used the Common Case Transmission Assumptions (then known as the Foundational Projects List (FPL)) in 2010 to guide development of priorities for the Rapid Response Team for Transmission (RRTT). Three of the projects selected for prioritization were taken from the FPL.
1.2. Reference Case
1.3. Wind and Solar Profiles / PacifiCorp and NTTG / · Uses wind and solar shapes in FERC Order 1000 modeling.
1.4. Resource and Transmission Capital Costs / Northern Tier Transmission Group (NTTG) / · Uses TEPPC’s capital costs for estimating resource and transmission costs.
1.5. Preferred Environmental Data / Northern Tier Transmission Group / · Uses environmental data and the data viewer to develop transmission project profiles.
1.6. Recommended Enhancements / California ISO / · Adds a zonal and a sub-hourly model on top of the nodal model as the three models shares the same data.
2. Tools
General Comments / Like data, the tools and models created to facilitate interconnection-wide transmission planning are broadly utilized and valued. The models themselves, as well as the advancement of modeling methods TEPPC facilitates, assures that WECC and other planning entities use high-quality information from across the Interconnection.
• Consistent, vetted, and updated Interconnection-wide production cost, power flow, capital cost, and environmental risk models.
• Development and maintenance of modeling tools and techniques customized for the Western Interconnection.
2.1. Power Flow Base Case and Round Trip / California ISO (CAISO) / · Uses as starting point for all ISO transmission studies.
· Uses to determine local capability requirements for CPUC resource adequacy program.
Northern Tier Transmission Group (NTTG) / · Starting with the 10-year Common Case, NTTG exports stressed hours, using GridView “Round Trip” to build power flow cases that are used to perform economic and reliability studies under FERC Order 1000.
2.2. Production Cost Modeling / PacifiCorp / · Uses GridView when running NTTG analysis.
2.3. Capital Expansion Model (LTPT) / U.S. Department of Energy / · In 2013-14, WECC applied the LTPT to re-evaluate previously established energy corridors in the West.
· Identified potential energy corridors and potential preferred locations of future infrastructure (e.g., pipelines, electricity transmission lines, and associated infrastructure) by leveraging WECC’s GIS based environmental datasets and geospatial optimization tools.
2.4. Environmental Data Viewer / San Diego Gas & Electric Co. (SDG&E) / · Uses WECC Environmental Data viewer to evaluate potential routes for a new transmission lines with which they may be involved.
Northern Tier Transmission Group (NTTG) / · Uses WECC Environmental Data viewer to develop transmission project profiles.
2.5. Environmental Risk Classification System / Northern Tier Transmission Group (NTTG) / · Uses the risk classification system to develop transmission project profiles.
Colorado Public Utilities Commission / · Adopted in concept a planning process that considers environmental and cultural risks. Colorado PUC Rule 3627 requires statewide comprehensive transmission planning that is coordinated among electric utilities in Colorado. The Colorado PUC found that incorporating environmental concerns into transmission planning is important in providing planners with critical information for evaluating the feasibility and routing of a particular transmission proposal.
· Further directed that if the EDTF products are available in time to inform the statewide 2014 Transmission Plan, the utilities are expected to use these resources in appropriate places throughout the Plan and explain how they were used in developing the Plan.
· The Colorado Coordinated Planning Group (CCPG) is responsible for developing these coordinated plans. Environmental and cultural data are required as part of a review for sensitive areas when evaluating the proposed transmission projects.
2.6. Project Information Portal / PacifiCorp / · Uses assumptions from the WECC Project Information Portal in transmission modeling under FERC Order 1000.
Northern Tier Transmission Group (NTTG) / · Uses assumptions from the WECC Project Information Portal in transmission modeling under FERC Order 1000.
2.7. Resource and Transmission Capital Cost Calculator / Northern Tier Transmission Group (NTTG) / · Uses TEPPC’s capital costs for estimating resource and transmission capital costs
2.8. Steady-State and Dynamic Models / Northern Tier Transmission Group (NTTG) / · Once available, NTTG will use the WECC steady-state and dynamic models, coupled with “round trip” when performing Order 1000 studies.
3. Reports
General Comments / The 10- and 20-Year planning studies serve to understand the interconnection-wide impacts of local, state, and subregional decisions, as well as economic, operations, and federal environmental, energy, and tax policy implications. In complying with FERC Order 890, some SPGs point to WECC’s economic study processes as a way to meet a portion of their requirements for economic studies. Through the study request process and stakeholder input, the analysis identifies how the expected future Interconnection performs under a variety of uncertainties and identified risks, and allows planners and stakeholders to better understand and model a variety of policy implications affecting the Western Interconnection. It is this holistic evaluation that identifies potential reliability issues and economic opportunities, and the drivers for them.
• Consideration of a wide range of studies that reflect the potential future generation and transmission options nominated through a fair and well-established request window.
Transmission Expansion Planning March 7, 2013 Page 5
• Evaluation of the cumulative impacts of subregional plans.
• Consensus-based scenarios for understanding 20-year possible futures.
TEPPC has also delved into environmental analysis with respect to transmission planning. The transmission alternative comparison methodology provides a consistent method for evaluating environmental and cultural risks from transmission planning and includes a process for engaging stakeholders at multiple levels. Preferred environmental and cultural datasets are used as inputs in a long-term planning tool (20-year horizon) and are analyzed using a land classification system that identifies high- and low-risk areas, providing the opportunity to avoid or mitigate environmental and/or cultural risks at the planning level.
The study results and resulting transmission plans provide the industry with key messages about the future of the Interconnection that have been broadly vetted and accepted. The objective of this work is to understand the connection between reliability, costs, environmental impacts, and infrastructure decisions. The plans shine a light on potential reliability issues and suggest where actions by others should be focused.
• Analysis results that show the Interconnection-wide impacts of decisions that are made in more local processes.
• 10-Year Plans that reflect current infrastructure investment trends and enacted energy policy that identify economic opportunities and potential reliability issues.
• 20-Year Plans that tell the story how various policy, technology, and cost drivers might impact infrastructure decisions.
3.1. Common Case Transmission Assumptions / PacifiCorp / · Uses as part of the Common Case package.
First Solar / · Uses the CCTA to guide efforts to find sites with favorable transmission conditions for new solar generation projects.
3.2. Annual TEPPC Study Program / PacifiCorp / · Participates consistently in developing the annual Study Program
3.3. Issue-Based Reports / PacifiCorp / · Supports studying all types of issue-based reports shown in TEPPC Study Program in an open, transparent and all-inclusive public process.
First Solar / · Uses issue-based reports to guide efforts to find sites with favorable transmission conditions for new solar generation projects.
3.4. 10-Year Study Case Reports / First Solar / · Uses the 10-year study case reports to guide efforts to find sites with favorable transmission conditions for new solar generation projects.
3.5. 20-Year Study Case Reports
3.6. Bi- or Triennial Interconnection-Wide Transmission Plan / PacifiCorp / · The annual TEPPC Study Program contains pieces of what might be included in a plan.
California ISO / · Uses the biennial plan to guide transmission planning efforts.
3.7. General / The Brattle Group / · Uses, or at least examines, all the data and reports listed in the work products matrix, typically while performing a market analysis for a WECC market participant.
· TEPPC’s work product is the most comprehensive for the Western Interconnection. The various scenarios that you run are of interest to our clients and also give us insight into what other western utilities are worried about. This is really valuable in understanding how future power exchanges might change.
4. Stakeholder Process
General Comments / The learning model that TEPPC follows assures that data and models are the best available. In the process, stakeholders learn from each other and, through debate, create common understandings about topics central to planning the Interconnection. Stakeholders participating in TEPPC activities come with their own subject matter expertise. Through discussions, the stakeholders are able to come away with a broader knowledge about the interests and issues facing transmission expansion planning and the future of the Western Interconnection. Over time, this educational benefit reduces controversy over future infrastructure decisions.
• Forum for discussing and creating a common basis of knowledge for energy planning issues.
• Broad stakeholder governance and involvement to assure diverse concerns of planning stakeholders are incorporated.
Western Electricity Coordinating Council