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RRC files reliability standards with RCA
Railbelt electricity reliability organization files four of the standards that it is preparing for the Railbelt electrical system
Alan Bailey for Petroleum News
The Railbelt Reliability Council, the electricity reliability organization for the Alaska Railbelt electrical system, has filed with the Regulatory Commission of Alaska its first tranche of reliability standards for the system. Established to improve the efficiency of the electrical system through unified oversight of the system, the RRC is tasked with developing, maintaining and mandating reliability standards for the Railbelt's high voltage electrical system; administering rules for open access to the transmission grid; and conducting Railbelt-wide integrated resource planning.
The RRC is developing the reliability standards in a series of tranches. This first tranche consists of standards for the balancing of power generation and consumption to maintain a stable electrical frequency; for the evaluation of energy interchange transactions between the different entities that operate the system; for the monitoring and control of voltage levels and the reactive flows of energy between electrical sources and loads; and for generator operations for maintaining appropriate network voltages.
Implementation plan The organization has also filed a proposed plan for implementing the new standards within 24 months of RCA approval. During that 24-month period the RRC will develop policies and procedures for the submittal of relevant data, for data storage and for data security requirements. The RRC will then be tasked with monitoring the application of the standards and enforcing the use of the standards through a combination of self reporting by the various affected entities and through the conducting of performance audits by the RRC. Any violations of the standards by an entity within the system will be recorded, together with a specification of required actions by the entity to remedy and mitigate the situation.
The standards have to specify penalties that may be associated with a standard violation. However, the RRC proposes to simplify the penalty arrangements by associating penalties with violation risk factors and severity levels for the various reliability standards, together with a single set of sanctions guidelines.
Transmission tariffs and integrated resource plan The Railbelt Transmission Organization, a newly formed entity within the Alaska Energy Authority, has taken on responsibility for developing a new tariff arrangement for the Railbelt transmission system, to improve the economics of shipping generated power across lengthy sections of the system. The RTO recently applied to the RCA for a required certificate of public convenience and necessity and has to develop the new tariff protocol by July 1.
Meanwhile the RRC has indicated that it anticipates starting work on the electrical system integrated resource plan in the first or second quarter of this year.
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