Operating Committee Meeting Agenda
November 10–11, 2004
Kansas City, Missouri
North American Electric Reliability Council
Princeton Forrestal Village, 116-390 Village Boulevard, Princeton, New Jersey 08540-5731
Operating Committee Meeting
November 10, 2004 ¾ Following Joint Meeting-5 p.m.
November 11, 2004 ¾ 8 a.m.-5 p.m.
The Hyatt Regency Crown Center Hotel
2345 McGee Street
Kansas City, Missouri
Phone: 816-421-1234 ¾ Fax: 816-435-4190
Agenda
1. Administration
a. Arrangements – Secretary
b. Announcement of Quorum – Secretary
c. Procedures - Secretary
i) Antitrust Guidelines - Chairman
ii) Parliamentary Procedures - Secretary
iii) Organization and Procedures Manual for the NERC Standing Committees
d. New Members – Gayle Mayo and Secretary
e. Introduction of Members and Guests - Secretary
2. Approval of Agenda - Chair
3. Consent Agenda
a. Minutes - July 21–22, 2004 Operating Committee Meeting - Chair
b. Executive Committee Activities – Sam Jones
4. Information Items
a. Quarterly Disturbance Report
b. Compliance and Enforcement Program – Dave Hilt
c. Hotline System and Procedures
d. Control Area-to-Reliability Coordinator Mapping – Larry Kezele
e. Alliant West TLR Test Extension
5. Reports from Other Committees - Bill Lohrman, Glenn Ross, Stuart Brindley or Larry Bugh
6. System Events – Westwing Substation Outage – Bob Temple
7. Operator Training Program – John Taylor, Tom King
8. Frequency Data Collection and Analysis – Carl Monroe
Implementation of Recommendations from August 14, 2003 Blackout
9. Operations – Real-Time – Jim Castle and Larry Kezele
a. Implementation of Revised Operating Policies
b. Operator “Tools”
c. Communications – Hotline
d. Definitions of Operating Conditions
e. TLR Use
10. Operations Planning – Jim Castle and Larry Kezele
a. Operating Planning – General
b. Identification of “Critical Facilities”
c. Communications – Line Outage Information
11. System Restoration – Jim Castle
12. Reliability Standards – Version 0 – Gerry Cauley
Operating Committee Organization and 2005 Work Plan
13. Personnel Subcommittee – Chairman
14. Reliability Coordinator Working Group – Jim Castle
15. NERC Audits and Assistance Program – Chairman
a. Market Readiness and Reliability Plan Audits
b. NERC Assistance Program
16. OC Annual Work Plan – Don Benjamin
17. Operating Limits Definitions – Al Miller and Ed Riley
18. TLR Threshold Issues – Dave McNeill
19. Reliability Plan Templates – Sam Jones
a. NERC Regional Operating Reliability Plan
b. Reliability Coordinator Reliability Plan
c. Balancing Authority Integrated Operational Plan
20. Eastern Interconnection Phasor Project – Bob Cummings
21. Interchange Authority Functionality – John Simonelli
22. Next Meetings
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Item 1. Administration
a. Arrangements
The secretary will review the meeting arrangements. The meeting begins on Wednesday, November 10 after the joint OC-PC-MC meeting, and will adjourn on Thursday, November 11 at 5 p.m. A luncheon will be served at noon on both days. (See Figure 1 at right.)
b. Announcement of Quorum
The secretary will announce whether a quorum (two-thirds of the voting members) is in place. NOTE: the committee cannot conduct business without a quorum. Please be prepared to stay for the entire meeting.
c. Procedures
The NERC Antitrust Compliance Guidelines, Organization and Procedures Manual, and a summary of Parliamentary Procedures are attached for reference. The secretary will answer questions regarding these procedures.
Attachments
· Antitrust Guidelines
· Parliamentary Procedures
· Organization and Procedures Manual for the NERC Standing Committees
Action – Waiver of “Ten-Day” rule
“Ten-day” rule. The chairman will waive the rule requiring a ten-day posting before an item can be brought to the committee for consideration. (See text at right.) The committee members are free to make any motions they desire.
d. New Members
Action
The Operating Committee will need to formally approve the recommendation from the Nominating Task Force to fill the TDU representative vacancy:
Mr. Kevin Conway
System Reliability Manager
Power Management Department
Utility District No. 2 of Grant County, Washington
We will also welcome:
Mr. Peter Fraser
Special Advisor
Strategic Planning & Policy Development Branch
Ontario Energy Board
Mr. Fraser is replacing Brian Hewson as the Canada regulator observer on the OC. Mr. Hewson has a new position as the OEB’s chief compliance officer. The OC does not need to take any action on this change.
Attachment
Operating Committee Membership Table
e. Introduction of Members and Guests
The chairman will ask the committee members and guests to introduce themselves
Attachment
Operating Committee roster
Item 2. Approval of Agenda
Action
Approve meeting agenda.
Background
The chairman will review the agenda, ask for amendments, and then approval.
Item 3. Consent Agenda
The consent agenda allows the Operating Committee to approve routine items that would not normally need discussion. Any OC member may ask the chairman to remove an item from the consent agenda for formal discussion and action.
The “Action” listed in each item would be the result of the committee’s approval of the consent agenda.
a. Minutes - July 21–22, 2004 Operating Committee Meeting
Action
Approve minutes.
Attachment
Minutes – July 21–22, 2004 Operating Committee meeting
b. Executive Committee Actions
Action
Ratify Executive Committee actions.
After the July 2004 Operating Committee meeting, the Executive Committee took formal action on three items:
September 16, 2004 conference call.
1. Approved the formation of the Training Program project management team. That team consists of the officers of the Personnel Subcommittee, Personnel Certification Governance Committee, and NERC staff. The Executive Committee also gave the project management team permission to select the members of the study panel. (The OC will discuss the training program under item 7.)
2. Approved the NERCnet redundancy project. The OC approved this project at its July meeting pending the Operating Reliability Subcommittee and Reliability Coordinator Working Group’s approval. (See text box at right.) The ORS and RCWG approved the project on September 16.
September 30, 2004 email
Approved the extension of the Alliant West TLR Test Extension until March 31, 2005. (See Item 4e below.)
Item 4. Information Items
These items are listed FYI and we are not planning any formal discussions. However, the NERC staff or subcommittee officers will be prepared to discuss any of these items if the OC wishes.
a. Quarterly Disturbance Report
Attachment
“Disturbance Analysis Working Group – Quarterly Update”
b. Compliance and Enforcement Program
Attachment
NERC 2004 Compliance Enforcement Program – Second Quarter Regional Compliance Performance
The NERC Compliance and Enforcement Program continues to monitor a number of measures for existing NERC standards. In accordance with the interim disclosure guidelines approved by the board in February, quarterly reports of violations are posted on the NERC website (http://www.nerc.com/~rap/audits.html). The reports for the first and second quarter are posted and contain violations of both planning standards and operating policies. Beginning with the third quarter of 2004, NERC will also include the name of the organizations with confirmed violations of NERC standards in accordance with the final disclosure guidelines approved by the board in June. The final disclosure guidelines became effective July 1, 2004.
The 2005 Compliance and Enforcement Program is under development. It is expected that for the first quarter of 2005, NERC will monitor measures of existing standards similar to those in the 2004 program. Subsequent to April 1, 2005, the Compliance Enforcement Program will need to include those measures approved with the Version 0 standards. The program will be adjusted based on the approval of these standards by the NERC board.
c. Hotline System and Procedures
The Reliability Coordinators are continuing to use the new hotline procedures that the OC reviewed in July. Also, the NERC conference bridge is working, and we will soon move the hotline to this new switch. The conference bridge can accommodate approximately 70 participants; however, we are reserving enough lines to ensure that the Reliability Coordinators will always be able to use the conference bridge as their hotline.
d. Control Area-to-Reliability Coordinator Mapping
Attachment
“NERC Reliability Coordinator Desks,” October 15, 2004
e. Alliant West TLR Test Extension
Attachment
Letter to FERC, “NERC Transmission Line Loading Relief (TLR) Procedure – Docket No. ER00-1666-000”
Background
The attached letter contains NERC’s notice to FERC of the extension of the effective period for test revisions to its TLR Procedure on specific Alliant West area flowgates to March 31, 2005. The test revisions were contained in a final report of the NERC Alliant West TLR Task Force (AWTTF) that NERC submitted to FERC on April 2, 2004 (Attachment A). The test revisions were implemented in the Alliant West area during an initial test period from June 1, 2004 to September 30, 2004. This extension of the test period will provide the NERC Long-Term AFC/ATC Task Force (LTATF) additional time to gather data to help determine whether a change in certain TLR procedures and algorithms would alleviate equity impacts in the Alliant West area.
Since the AWTTF recommendations were implemented on June 1, 2004, Alliant West has only experienced one TLR 5 event requiring the use of the 3% test threshold for the eight Alliant West flowgates referenced in the recommendations. Although the flow patterns have changed due to better water conditions in the Manitoba Hydro region, the LTATF, which was charged with reviewing the AWTTF recommendations, believes that the enhanced communication and coordination called for in the recommendations have also contributed to the large reduction in TLRs. However, the LTATF needs to accumulate additional experience to evaluate the impact of the recommendations under the new flow conditions.
This extension is also coordinated with the planned date for the LTATF report to the NERC standing committees in March 2005. NERC anticipates that the LTATF report will provide a final review of the disposition of the AWTTF recommendations, as well as other suggested solutions (e.g., Standards Authorization Requests or proposed business practices for ATC/AFC calculations and communication, or some combination of the two).
Item 5. Reports from Other Committees
Bill Lohrman and Glenn Ross will summarize the actions of the Market Committee and Planning Committee, respectively.
The Market Committee will discuss its future role at its November 9 meeting, and we expect the MC to endorse one of the options contained in the white paper that’s attached.
Attachment
“Review of The Market Committee Role And Structure” White Paper
Item 6. System Events – Westwing Substation Outage
Action
Discussion
Background
At 07:41 MST on June 14, 2004, a phase-to-ground fault occurred on the Westwing-Liberty 230 kV line approximately five miles from Westwing substation in Arizona. On July 4, transformers at the Westwing substation failed and caught fire (picture at right).
Bob Temple, manager of the Rocky Mountain-Desert Southwest Reliability Center and one of the NERC Reliability Coordinators, will review the events of June 14 and July 4 with the Operating Committee.
Item 7. Operator Training Program
Action
The Personnel Subcommittee will ask the Operating Committee to approve the subcommittee’s intent to develop a training program.
Personnel Subcommittee Vice Chairman John Taylor will lead the discussion.
Tom King of the FERC staff will explain the training study that the Commission is conducting.
You will find a synopsis of the project on page 3 of the attached project plan, an overview on pages 4 through 8, and the project management diagram on page 9. Please read these to prepare for the discussion.
Attachment
“NERC Training Program Project Plan,” Draft 1 – October 21, 2004
Background
This report provides an overview of NERC’s plans for developing a training program.
The training program was originally conceived as a system operator training study, which the U.S.-Canada Power Outage Task Force recommended in its final report. (See text box at right.) However, as the NERC Personnel Subcommittee, Personnel Certification Governance Committee, and staff began working on that study, it soon became apparent that NERC and its system operators needed a comprehensive training program. The training study is an important part—but only a part—of the development of that program.
Personnel Subcommittee Vice Chairman John Taylor will review the goals and objectives of the NERC Training Program and explain what we have done so far. He will also explain how NERC plans to integrate the FERC operator training study into the development of the NERC Training Program. Tom King from the FERC staff will review the Commission’s training study.
The attached NERC Training Program Project Plan is still preliminary, though the first objective—Studies of Operator Excellence and Best Training Practices—is pretty well defined and under way.
The Personnel Subcommittee is working on a training standard. The NERC staff presented the training program to the Board of Trustees on October 15 for the board’s information.
Item 8. Frequency Data Collection and Analysis
Action
The Resources Subcommittee will ask the Operating Committee to consider the Subcommittee’s latest proposal for analyzing the frequency characteristics in each Interconnection.
Attachment
NERC staff will send the updated project plan separately.
Background
The Resources Subcommittee brought the present control performance standards to the Operating Committee in December 1996 for approval. The subcommittee explained that the success of the new standard would turn on the evidence that the Interconnections’ frequency characteristics did not deteriorate. Since then, the Resources Subcommittee has been collecting frequency information from a variety of voluntary sources, but that data often lacks consistency and is not always available, especially as Resources Subcommittee membership changes.
The Resources Subcommittee decided that it needed a more formal way to collect frequency information. The subcommittee designed the Frequency Data Collection and Analysis (FDCAS) project to provide a consistent and reliable source of frequency information from each Interconnection. This will enable the subcommittee to determine the frequency characteristics in each Interconnection and judge the effectiveness of NERC’s control standards.