Western Electricity Coordinating Council Reliability Coordinator Project

1. WECC RC EMS and Systems Overview September 14, 2009

2. WECC Background • WECC is the RC for the Western Interconnect covering 14 states, 2 Canadian Provinces, and Northern Baja California, Mexico • 170,000 MW peak load • 36 Balancing Authorities • WECC began operations Jan. 1st, 2009

3. Western Electricity Coordinating Council Reliability Coordinator Project 2007, 2008 & 2009 • RC Initiative Project 2007 • WSM Project 2007 • WECC Board of Director approval on December 7th, 2007 • Project 2008 construction, hiring, development and delivery • Go live, January 1st, 2009

4. Reliability Coordination prior to 2009 There were 3 original RC centers for the Western Interconnection. These were 3 separate entities and governance models. They had a common link with one WECC Director of RC and by a committee led review team. Each entity had it’s own set of network models, tools and practices. Each had a need to comply with the new NERC standards and manage their particular entities within their boundries.

5. Reliability Coordination Initiative / Westwide Model Initiative There were two main drivers to change the RC model of the 3 RC centers in the Western Interconnection. The first was an initiative to reassess the RC function initiated by the WECC Board of Directors in 2006. A study was completed during that time. The recommendations were to consolidate the RC functions into two centers and utilize the same systems / tools and views. The second initiative was an interest in creating the Westwide System Model and have a set of tools that accurately represented the detailed topology of the entire WECC footprint.

6. Reliability Coordination Initiative / Westwide Model Initiative Both initiatives were the result of committee and member engagement. The initiatives began to merge into one project in early 2007. Late in 2007 a proposal was developed to fund the building of two new RC Centers, complete with staffing, infrastructure and communications to support the new initiatives. On December 7th, 2007 the project team received unanomous approval for the proposal with the caveat that it had to be completed by the 1st of 2009.

7. WECC Model Origins • WECC Model began as a merge of three previous RCs: RDRC, PNSC, and CMRC. • CIM exports of the models + one netmom were merged. • Merged model was full of duplicate lines and stations, incorrect equipment names, etc.

8. Quick look back at the 08 project schedule

9. ICCP to / from BAs WON WECC Loveland, Colorado Reliability Center WECC Vancouver, Washington Reliability Center RC Workstations RC Workstations DMZ Internet Servers DMZ Internet Servers Network Based informational tools Outage Updates EMS Views Core Network • Main tools • EMS / ICCP / CA • Study Tools • PI • COS • Communications Internet

10. In 4 months we went from here….

11. To Here…..

12. Reliabiltiy Coordinator Functions • Situational Awareness – focus on reliability of the grid, issue directives, coordinate activities, desiminate information etc. Responsible for many reliability based NERC standards. • Day Ahead Study function • Regional Time Keeper function • Restoration and recover coordination • Other roles as assigned…. “the RC Shall….”

13. Reliabiltiy Coordinator Tools • Situational Awareness – EMS and PI are the main tools utilized. • Day Ahead Study function – Coordinated Outage System (COS), EIDE Data Exchange (xml formatted data for schedules, forecast, interchange etc), EMS Study environment (stnet), a small but growing set of home grown tools (Sharepoint, .net, views etc). • Regional Time Keeper function – redundant time / frequency systems. • Restoration and recover – redundant communications, messaging system etc. • Other roles as assigned…. “the RC Shall….” – Application development environment and staff.

14. RC Day Ahead Functions • Next-day study provides complete view of Western Interconnect. • Inputs to next-day analysis: • State estimator snapshot capturing current system conditions • Transmission and generation scheduled outages • Balancing Authority load forecast • Unit commitment • Interchange schedules • 5000 contingencies are simulated to determine voltage and thermal health of interconnect. • Problems found are discussed with BAs/TOPs.

15. RC Study Functions • Network Applications • State Estimator: Once per minute, provides complete state of the network utilizing network model and measurements (MW, MVAR, KV, CB status, etc.) from the field. • Contingency Analysis: Once per 5 minutes, provides 5000 “what if” scenarios using the latest State Estimator solution. • Branch MVA limits and bus kV limits monitored for potential problems. • SE savecase created each 15 minutes. • Can be converted to PSLF for disturbance analysis.

16. SE Solution Details • SE runs on a 1 minute periodic trigger. • 11,000 bus model (dynamic) • 75% of buses are measurement observable. • 6000 stations; 11,000 lines; 2,400 generators • 80,000 measurements mapped to model • WECC implementation has proven to be very robust – over 99.6% SE solution availability since January 1st.

17. RC Situational Awareness • Situational Awareness • Monitoring system alarms • Balancing Authority summary data (ACE, generation, interchange, reserves, etc.) • Time monitor for Western Interconnect

18. RC Situational AwarenessLoveland/Vancouver Communication

19. RC Path Monitoring PI bar chart view of all WECC paths EMS WECC map shows key paths with dynamic flows, colors, and alarming.

20. RC Facility Loss Monitoring Generation delta MW monitoring Transmission delta flow monitoring

21. What data is required to make the tools and functions previously described work properly? Under NERC Standard TOP-005, the RC is required to formally request the data it determines is needed to perform its functions. Many of these requests were new to our members and the format took some development to get right. Currently, we have inputs from over 40 members on a variety of required data (ICCP, Outages, schedules, load forecasts, interchange etc. Our Data Request is published on the WECC Web Site http://www.wecc.biz/About/Reliability/Documents/WECC%20RC%20Data%20Request%20Specifications%2005192009.pdf WECC RC Data request

22. Inputs RC Systems RC Tools, Results Day-Ahead Scheduled outages and impacted path OTC limits. Next-day study contingency analysis - voltage, thermal violations EIDE (XML based data exchange) – Unit commitment, load forecast, interchange Next-day path OTC violations based on outages and OTC limits provided WSM (Western Interconnect model) EMS System PI System COS (Coordinated Outage System) AVTEC Phones Firescope system monitoring WECCNet messaging Coming soon: next-day reactive margin calculations using VSAT application Snapshot of SE to capture latest system topology Real-Time 90,000 ICCP points coming into the WECC EMS (Analogs every 10 seconds, status by exception) Real-time state estimator and contingency analysis Path monitoring Path flows, OTC limits, schedules Alarm monitoring (forced outages, ACE L10, reserves limits, voltage deviations, frequency, etc.) Generation, transmission data – MW, MVAR, KV, CB status Real, Reactive Reserves monitoring BA summary data – ACE, reserves, interchange, etc. RC Function and Tools

23. Our project was based on a princible of very few vendors doing what they do best. Here are the vendors we partnered with to provide the WECC RC with the systems and tools needed for our role. Areva T&D Company West wide System Model – World Class Energy Management System – SCADA displays – Modeling Environment American Power Conditioners Providers of our Generator / Transfer System / UPS and Server Racks and status communication portal. OSIsoft, Inc. PI System – World Class Data Historian system with a platform for Operator tools and views. FireScope World Class Monitoring system to dashboard both our facilities and systems into a single management tool. Netwize IT hardware / software resource and provided 95% of all IT hardware for our project.

24. We completed a CIP Spot audit for the first 13 controls that NERC identified audible compliance in table 1 implementation. During our audit a discussion was held regarding unescorted access to critical cyber security assets. It was their opinion that there could essentially be no or extremely limited unescorted access and that any connective link would require authorized persons (complete with risk assessment and entity cyber training). This may be an industry issue if this is the case. How do you allow a vendor access to your system remotely. EMS vendors are responding but how about Cisco, Juniper, hardware firmware updates that need support etc. Pendiing issues for discussion….

25. Data Sharing of reliability data has become a much more focused issue. We now have discussions regarding reliability data that include intellectual property, confidential data that has specific NDA clauses, international treaties as it pertains to Canadian or Mexican data sharing, planning models, etc. There is a question of how to protect critical data for security, market and company rights that is 180 degree out from legitimate requests for data / information that can aid individuals in protecting the grid. The Westwide System Model is a shareable tool for our members but still has various concerns regarding the ability to share beyond the terms defined. Pendiing issues for discussioN cont…

26. Questions? • Contact info…. • Eric Whitley ewhitley@wecc.biz 360-713-9581