TOP and BA Responsibilities

SPP Wind WorkshopMay 30, 2013

Context

Sunflower and Mid-Kansas will give overview of their activities as example of how TOs and BAs operate in SPP

Other TOs and BAs encouraged to speak up with their own examples.

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Sunflower and Mid-KansasWho We Are

Sunflower is an electric G&T in western Kansas owned by six member cooperatives

Mid-Kansas is owned by five of the Sunflower member cooperatives, plus one additional member that is a wholly-owned subsidiary of the sixth Sunflower member

Mid-Kansas holds physical and contractual assets, but has no employees – agreement with Sunflower to operate and maintain all assets

Sunflower has assumed all compliance responsibility for Mid-Kansas and the member cooperatives

Sunflower and Mid-Kansas operate in a combined balancing area (SECI)

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Sunflower and Mid-Kansas Service Territory

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Sunflower and Mid-Kansas Transmission Facilities

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Sunflower(miles)

Mid-Kansas(miles)

Total(miles)

115-kV Line 1,009 733 1,742

138-kV Line 0 86 86

230-kV Line 0 193 193

345-kV Line 222 0 222

Total Transmission 1,231 1,012 2,243

Sunflower(number)

Mid-Kansas(number)

Total(number)

Substations 27 49 76

Sunflower and Mid-Kansas Statistics

SECI peak load – 1,156 MW (June 27, 2012)

Sunflower and Mid-Kansas owned generation – 980 MW

Sunflower and Mid-Kansas wind contracts – 280 MW (nameplate)

Wind installed in SECI footprint – approximately 1,445 MW (nameplate)o Over 900 MW of new wind added in last year within the SECI BA

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SECI Balancing Area

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Sunflower Registered Functions –Typical for SPP TOs

Balancing Authority

Transmission Owner

Transmission Operator

Generator Owner

Generator Operator

Distribution Provider

Load Serving Entity

Resource Planner

Purchasing Selling Entity

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Balancing Authority ResponsibilitiesHow Sunflower Meets

Balance resources with load to control frequencyo Monitor and control Area Control Error (ACE)o Ensure adequate Regulation Reserves (up and down) are maintainedo Meet NERC Control Performance Standards (CPS1 and CPS2)o Sunflower balances 445 MW (nameplate) of wind in the SECI BA

• 280 MW from contracts• 165 MW from balancing agreements• Other wind in SECI BA is pseudo-tied out• Typically carry 10 MW of up regulation and 10 MW of down regulation

Respond to disturbances to restore frequencyo Meet NERC Disturbance Control Standard requirementso Ensure adequate Contingency Reserves (spinning and supplemental) are

maintainedo Sunflower compliance met through participation in the SPP Reserve Sharing

Group

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Balancing Authority Responsibilities

Respond to capacity and energy emergencieso Maintain adequate capacity at all times to cover load and reserve

requirementso Develop and implement plans to address capacity and energy shortfallso Sunflower monitors capacity position each hour to ensure firm capacity

position is maintained above load plus operating reserves minus wind generation

Plan to meet voltage and/or reactive power limits, including the deliverability/capability for any single contingency

Upon implementation of SPP Integrated Marketplace, BA responsibilities will shift to SPP

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Transmission Owner Responsibilities

Develop and implement facility connection requirements

Develop and implement vegetation management program

Develop and implement facility rating methodologyo Operating time frame Sunflower Facility Ratings:

• Operate indefinitely below Normal Rating

• Operate for up to four hours between Normal and Emergency Rating

• Operate for no more than 30 minutes above Emergency Rating

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Transmission Owner Responsibilities

Implement an Underfrequency Load Shedding System (UFLS) per SPP RTO requirements

Set relays per SPP and RTO requirements

Develop and implement maintenance and testing program for Protection Systems, UFLS, Undervoltage Load Shedding Systems, and Special Protection Systems

Identify misoperations associated with Protection Systems and Special Protection Systems and develop corrective action plans

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Transmission Operator Responsibilities

Establish and communicate System Operating Limits

Monitor and control voltage levels and real and reactive power flows

Operate within all identified operating limits (IROLs and SOLs)

Operate to prevent the likelihood that a disturbance, action, or inaction will result in an IROL or SOL violation

Operate the transmission system to ensure instability, uncontrolled separation, or cascading outages will not occur as the result of the most severe single contingency

Take actions as required to alleviate operating emergencies including curtailing transmission service or energy schedules, operating equipment, and shedding load

Coordinate outage requests with other TOPs

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Shared BA and TOP Responsibilities

Coordinate current-day, next-day, and seasonal operations with neighboring BAs, TOPs, and the RC

Plan to meet forecasted load, system configuration, generation dispatch, interchange scheduling, and demand patterns

Plan to meet unscheduled changes in system configuration and dispatch (at a minimum N-1 contingency planning)

Conduct current-day, next-day, and seasonal studies to determine SOLs and update studies as required to reflect current system conditions

Plan to operate below all SOLs and IROLs (N-1 Contingency planning)

Comply with reliability directives issued by the RC

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Shared BA and TOP Responsibilities

Sunflower completes current-day, next-day and seasonal BES Studies and on an as-needed basis due to real time system changes, to identify N-0 and N-1 thermal overloads and voltage violations within the Sunflower/Mid-Kansas footprint

Results of studies are used to identify the need for mitigation plans to address any identified issues

Sunflower utilizes the SPP real time contingency analysis as an additional tool to monitor and evaluate N-1 overloads on Sunflower and Mid-Kansas facilities based on a pool-wide assessment of current operating conditions

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Example Study and Mitigation Plan

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NERC Alert

and Impact in SPP

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Facility Rating NERC Alert

APPLICABLE TO ALL SPP TOsOn October 7, 2010 NERC issued a facility ratings alert to transmission facility owners to evaluate actual field conditions vs. original design conditions in the determination of Facility Ratings

Alert included a requirement for each entity to assess whether actual field conditions conform to design tolerances specification in the conformance with entity’s Facility Rating Methodology

Facility assessments were to be prioritized over a three-year period with assessment of the highest priority facilities to be completed by the end of 2011, medium priority facilities by the end of 2012, and low priority facilities by the end of 2013

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Facility Ratings NERC Alert

Assessments should identify situations where actual conductor clearances are not within design tolerances and do not meet code clearances

Such findings should be coordinated with the RC and an interim mitigation plan should be developed to address the findings and identify actions required to maintain reliabilityo Such actions could include de-rating of the impacted facility until the

problem is fixedo Consideration should be given to optimizing the overall robustness and

reliability of the bulk power system during the remediation period o Remediation that takes more than one year after identification requires

approval from the Regional Entity

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System Constraints in SPP“Perfect Storm”

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Discrepancies found during NERC Alert inspections result in de-rates to Facility Ratings and constrain the system more than normal

Outages required to remediate NERC Alert findings change system topology which may further constrain the system

Multiple Transmission Owners completing NERC Alert inspections and remediation activities simultaneously add further potential for system constraints

Outages to support previously planned construction work associated with projects identified through the SPP planning process and generation interconnection and transmission service, as well as Member and third party delivery point requests add additional constraints

Large amount of wind generation added over past year adds to loading on already constrained transmission facilities (pseudo-ties help with balancing, but not physics)

Following slides show how SECI deals with congestion

What can we do as BAs? As TOs? As a region?

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“Perfect Storm” – Now What?

Congestion Management Processfrom Sunflower’s Perspective

Risk for congestion is highest when wind output is high during low load periods

When congestion occurs, Congestion Management Events (CMEs) are utilized by SPP to redispatch online dispatchable resources through the market system

o Market Locational Imbalance Prices (LIPs) have experienced significant volatility as wind has been added to the system

o Most of Sunflower’s gas resources are typically dispatched to minimum load, so redispatch that involves reducing output from these resources is often not possible or effective

o Sunflower’s Holcomb 1 coal-fired unit, which has historically experienced very little dispatch movement as a base load resource, has experienced significant cycling over the past several months as a result of CMEs and LIP volatility

SPP’s remaining tool – out of market curtailments 22

Holcomb 1 Dispatch

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Other Elements of Perfect Storm

Generator interconnection and transmission service study processes may not identify all system loading issueso In interconnection studies, upgrades not assigned to Customers

for all wind on at 100% nameplateo Studies start with “system intact” before running ‘n-1’. (no

maintenance outages accounted for)o NERC alerts may not be accounted foro Should studies be changed?

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Other Elements of Perfect Storm

No load / Light load o High voltageo Lack of voltage control when wind generation is not producingo No reactive control/capabilityo May require opening of interconnection to control network

voltage Effects of generator outages due to EPA rules FERC Separation of Functions Rules

o Constrain communication/collaboration among TOs and generatorso Using SPP to coordinate is key

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NEXT STEPS

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How Do We Minimize Wind Curtailments?

Investigate ways to speed up process for reducing wind output to protect reliabilityo Change from proactive N-1 mitigation to reactive? Can this be done

short of implementing Special Protection Systems?

Reconsider process for reviewing and approving transmission facility outageso Should pre-contingent curtailment of wind continue to be an acceptable

mitigation for violations identified when studying planned outage impacts?

Find a better way to coordinate required NERC Alert work from a SPP region-wide perspective to minimize wind impacts while continuing to protect reliabilityo Would require more input from SPP (FERC Separation of Functions

Rules)

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How Do We Minimize Wind Curtailments?

Investigate ways to factor in economic impact of wind curtailmento On generation owners – loss of PTCo On Project off-takers - potential make whole paymentso How and can this be incorporated into CME process?

Moving projects from NDVER to DVERo Are projects capable?o What are the potential costs?o Are there control system changes required?o What is the required time frame to convert?

How will this change with Integrated Market? What else?

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