Return to all Articles | Send to a Friend | View Printable
System Assessment Complete; Study Teams Formed
Published: June 05, 2008:Author: ColumbiaGrid Staff
ColumbiaGrid put finishing touches on a system assessment study in May and has convened study teams to address the largest problems. The assessment identified multi-system issues in North downtown Seattle, the Olympic Peninsula and in the mid-Columbia area. While the region has been aware of the problems for some time, the study highlighted the need for ColumbiaGrid to work on solutions and incorporate them into its upcoming biennial plan.
“We completed our system assessment report last month and moved on to organize study teams and conduct further sensitivity analysis,” according to Jeff Miller, ColumbiaGrid VP and manager of planning. We have study teams for Puget Sound, the Olympic Peninsula and Northern Mid-C, and they will guide us in developing plans to resolve the weaknesses we pinpointed in the assessment, he said. The information the study teams develop will be the basis for our recommendations in the biennial plan, Miller added.
ColumbiaGrid has embarked on sensitivity analyses in six areas, including impacts of integrating additional wind generation into the system; natural gas curtailment during peak load periods; BPA’s planned reinforcements on the California-Oregon Intertie to increase the available transfer capability by about 500 megawatts; Cowlitz PUD’s plan to upgrade its facilities; reduced hydroelectric generation under low water conditions; and loss of Centralia generation. Detailed plans for the sensitivity analysis are drawn up and ready to go.
There were three additional multi-system problems underscored in ColumbiaGrid’s system assessment – Cross Cascades South, Portland Area and Central Oregon, but they involve only one ColumbiaGrid party. If the owners request, ColumbiaGrid could facilitate the regional coordination needed to resolve them.
ColumbiaGrid started the system assessment last fall and planners simulated 9,600 operating contingencies. The assessment identified 13,800 cases of potential violations of standards throughout the Northwest, but ColumbiaGrid focused on those that affect multiple transmission owners and could have serious ramifications for system reliability.
The 2008 system assessment completes a key step in developing a biennial transmission plan that looks out over a 10-year planning horizon. ColumbiaGrid plans to release a draft of that plan by the end of 2008.
