[Federal Register Volume 64, Number 65 (Tuesday, April 6, 1999)]
[Notices]
[Pages 16730-16732]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 99-8422]
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DEPARTMENT OF ENERGY
Federal Energy Regulatory Commission
[Docket No. EL99-46-000]
Capacity Benefit Margin in Computing Available Transmission
Capacity; Notice of Technical Conference and Potential Broadcast of
Technical Conference and Request for Comments
March 31, 1999.
AGENCY: Federal Energy Regulatory Commission.
ACTION: Notice of Technical Conference and Potential Broadcast of
Technical Conference and Request for Comments.
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SUMMARY: The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (Commission) notifies
interested persons that the Commission Staff will convene a technical
conference at the Commission regarding Capacity Benefit Margin on May
20 and 21, 1999, commencing at 10:00 A.M. each day. The Commission
Staff invites any interested person wishing to speak at the technical
conference to submit a request to make a statement. The Commission
Staff also invites interested persons to submit written comments. At a
later date, the Secretary will issue a further notice listing the
speakers, panels and subjects for the technical conference.
DATES: Requests to speak at the technical conference must be filed with
the Office of the Secretary, Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, 888
First Street, NE, Washington, DC 20426 on or before Monday, April 19,
1999.
Written comments must be received by 5:00 P.M., Friday, April 23,
1999.
Persons interested in receiving the Capitol Connection's live
internet, telephone or satellite coverage of the technical conference
for a fee must notify Shirley Al-Jarani or Julia Morelli at the Capitol
Connection (703-993-3100) or contact them at Capitol Connection's
website (www.capitolconnection.gmu.edu) by May 7, 1999. Persons
interested in National Narrowcast Network's Hearing-On-The-Line service
coverage of the technical conference live by telephone should call 202-
966-2211 for further details.
The technical conference will be held on May 20 and 21, 1999,
commencing at 10:00 A.M. each day.
ADDRESSES: The technical conference will be held at the Federal Energy
Regulatory Commission, 888 First Street, NE, Washington, DC 20426.
FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT:
Charles Faust (Technical Issues), Office of Electric Power Regulation,
888 First Street, NE, Washington, DC 20426, 202-208-0564.
Andre Goodson (Legal Issues), Office of the General Counsel, 888 First
Street, NE, Washington, DC 20426, 202-208-2167.
SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: In addition to publishing the full text of
this document in the Federal Register, the Commission also provides all
interested persons an opportunity to inspect or copy the contents of
this document during normal business hours in the Public Reference Room
at 888 First Street, N.E., Room 2A, Washington, DC 20426.
The Commission Issuance Posting System (CIPS) provides access to
the texts of formal documents issued by the Commission. CIPS can be
accessed via Internet through FERC's Home Page (http://www.ferc.fed.us)
using the CIPS link or the Energy Information Online icon. The full
text of this document will be available on CIPS in ASCII and
WordPerfect 6.1 format. CIPS is also available through the Commission's
electronic bulletin board service at no charge to the user and may be
access using a personal computer with a modem by dialing 202-208-1397,
if dialing locally, or 1-800-856-3920, if dialing long distance. To
access CIPS, set your communications software to 19200, 14400, 12000,
9600, 7200, 4800, 2400, or 1200 bps, full duplex, no parity, 8 data
bits and 1 stop bit. User assistance is available at 202-208-2474 or by
E-mail to [email protected].
This document is also available through the Commission's Records
and Information Management System (RIMS), an electronic storage and
retrieval system of documents submitted to and issued by the Commission
after November 16, 1981. Documents from November 1995 to the present
can be viewed and printed. RIMS is available in the Public Reference
Room or remotely via Internet through FERC's Homepage using the RIMS
link or the Energy Information Online icon. User assistance is
available at 202-208-2222, or by E-mail to [email protected].
Finally, the complete text on diskette in WordPerfect format may be
purchased from the Commission's copy contractor, RVJ International,
Inc. RVJ International, Inc., is located in the Public Reference Room
at 888 First Street, NE, Washington, DC 20426.
The Commission has directed the Commission Staff to convene a
technical conference to be held on Thursday, May 20, 1999, and Friday,
May 21, 1999, at the offices of the Federal Energy Regulatory
Commission, 888 First Street, NE, Washington, DC 20426. The technical
conference will commence at 10:00 a.m. each day and will be open to all
interested persons. The technical conference will address Capacity
Benefit Margin. The Commission Staff has attached to this notice a list
of suggested subjects for discussion at the technical conference.
Persons wishing to speak at the technical conference must submit a
request to make a statement in Docket No. EL99-46-000. This request
should clearly specify that it concerns the Capacity Benefit Margin
technical conference and must specify the name of the person desiring
to speak and the party or parties the speaker represents. Persons with
common interests or views are requested to file a joint request for
participation, so that the Commission can accommodate the maximum
number of participants. Requests must also include a brief synopsis of
the issue or issues the speaker wishes to address as well as the
speaker's position on the issue or issues. All requests must be filed
with the Office of the Secretary, Federal Energy Regulatory Commission,
888 First Street, NE, Washington, DC 20426 on or before Monday, April
19, 1999.
The number of persons desiring to speak at the conference may
exceed the time allotted. Therefore, based on the
[[Page 16731]]
requests to participate, the Commission Staff will put together panels
of speakers representing a broad spectrum of interests and views for
each panel. At a later date, the Secretary will issue a further notice
listing the speakers, panels and subjects for the technical conference.
In addition, interested persons are invited to submit written
comments addressing topics to be discussed at the technical conference.
To facilitate review of the comments, commenters should provide a
one page executive summary of their comments. The comments should be no
longer than 25 pages in length, double spaced, on 8\1/2\'' x 11''
paper, with standard margins.
The original and 14 copies of such comments must be received before
5:00 p.m., Friday, April 23, 1999. Comments should be submitted to the
Office of the Secretary, Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, 888
First Street, NE, Washington, DC 20426 and should refer to Docket No.
EL99-46-000.
In addition to filing paper copies, the Commission encourages the
filing of comments either on computer diskette or via Internet E-Mail.
Comments may be filed in the following formats: WordPerfect 6.1 or
lower version, MS Word Office 97 or lower version, or ASCII format.
For diskette filing, include the following information on the
diskette label: Docket No. EL99-46-000; the name of the filing entity;
the software and version used to create the file; and the name and
telephone number of a contact person.
For Internet E-Mail submittal, comments should be submitted to
``[email protected]'' in the following format. On the subject
line, specify Docket No. EL99-46-000. In the body of the E-Mail
message, include the name of the filing entity; the software and
version used to create the file, and the name and telephone number of
the contact person. Attach the comment to the E-Mail in one of the
formats specified above. The Commission will send an automatic
acknowledgement to the sender's E-Mail address upon receipt. Questions
on electronic filing should be directed to Brooks Carter at 202-501-
8145, E-Mail address [email protected].
Commenters should take note that, until the Commission amends its
rules and regulations, the paper copy of the filing remains the
official copy of the document submitted. Therefore, any discrepancies
between the paper filing and the electronic filing or the diskette will
be resolved by reference to the paper filing.
All comments will be placed in the Commission's public files and
will be available for inspection in the Commission's Public Reference
Room at 888 First Street, NE, Washington, DC 20426, during normal
business hours. Additionally, comments can be viewed and printed
remotely via the Internet through FERC's Homepage using the RIMS link
or the Energy Information Online icon. User assistance is available at
202-208-2222, or by E-mail to [email protected].
If there is sufficient interest, the Capitol Connection may offer
the conference live for a fee over the Internet as well as via
telephone and satellite. Persons interested in receiving the Capitol
Connection's live internet, phone bridge or satellite coverage for a
fee, please call Shirley Al-Jarani or Julia Morelli at the Capitol
Connection (703-993-3100) or contact them at Capitol Connection's
website (www.capitolconnection.gmu.edu) by May 7, 1999. In addition,
National Narrowcast Network's Hearing-On-The-Line service covers all
FERC meetings live by telephone so that interested persons can listen
at their desks, from their homes, or from any phone, without special
equipment. Billing is based on time on-line. Call 202-966-2211 for
further details.
By direction of the Commission. Commissioner Bailey did not
participate in this decision.
David P. Boergers,
Secretary.
What is CBM?
NERC's June 1996 publication, Available Transfer Capability
Definitions and Determination (page 14), states:
Capacity Benefit Margin (CBM) is that amount of transmission
transfer capability reserved by load serving entities to ensure
access to generation from interconnected systems to meet generation
reliability requirements. Reservation of CBM by a load serving
entity allows that entity to reduce its installed generating
capacity below that which may otherwise have been necessary without
interconnections to meet its generation reliability requirements.
It adds that if ``a load-serving entity maintains policies and
procedures to reserve transfer capability for generation reliability
purposes,'' CBM should be subtracted from Total Transmission Capacity
(TTC) in computing Available Transmission Capacity (ATC).\1\ It neither
prescribes a specific methodology for computing CBM, nor dictates that
a CBM adjustment of any amount be computed. Rather, the computations of
ATC set forth in the publication create a placeholder for those
utilities that elect to make a CBM adjustment. It appears that
utilities have different views on what CBM is and how it is computed.
Also, the decision as to whether and how to make a CBM adjustment
appears to reside in the transmission provider's' merchant function,
and it is not clear how decisions about CBM are made within the
confines of the Commission's unbundling requirements.
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\1\ The publication defines TTC as the amount of electric power
that can be transferred over the interconnected transmission network
in a reliable manner so as to ensure (1) that existing facilities
will be operated within normal ratings and limits; (2) the electric
systems are capable of absorbing dynamic power swings and remaining
stable following a disturbance that results in the loss of a single
system element; and (3) after contingencies and before operator-
intervention, facility loadings do not exceed emergency limits and
ratings. (pages 6-9) It notes that TTC may also be reduced to
reflect a Transmission Reliability Margin which is defined as the
transmission capability necessary to ensure that the interconnected
transmission network is secure under a reasonable range of
uncertainties in system conditions, including (1) the fact that the
assumptions used to model TTC may need to be more conservative in
the long term because less is known about the system parameters
(e.g., transactions, loads, generators) over extended periods and
(2) the fact that actual operating conditions (e.g., generator
dispatch, parallel flows, and maintenance outages) may differ from
those reflected in the model. (pages 13-14)
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Who is Allowed to use Transmission Capacity set Aside as CBM?
It appears that for many transmission providers transmission
capacity set aside as CBM is not made available for firm transmission
uses. However, some transmission providers do use CBM for their own
firm uses, and some appear to make CBM available for the firm imports
of any load-serving entity in the control area. There also appears to
be some variation as to how CBM is made available for nonfirm open
access offerings. Some utilities appear to make it available only
during system emergencies, others appear to use CBM to meet the nonfirm
uses of the transmission provider, while others appear to treat it as
nonfirm ATC under their open access tariffs.
Is CBM an Economic Issue and, if so, is the Right Person Making the
Economic Decision?
While CBM is often labeled a reliability issue, it is generally
supported on the ground that it reduces the cost of maintaining
generation reliability when compared to other alternatives that could
be used to maintain generation reliability. In circumstances when there
are multiple ways to maintain generation reliability that impact
transmission access differently (e.g., install generation
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locally, purchase transmission to reach remote generating resources, or
reduce firm ATC on the assumption that neighbors will help out during
generation contingencies), the person making the choice may not be the
same person, or the only person, that is affected by the economics of
the decision.
Are There Considerations Other Than Reliability and Economics that
Impact CBM Issues?
In Pennsylvania-New Jersey-Maryland Interconnection, 81 FERC para.
61,257 at 62,276-77 (1998), the Commission expressed the possibility
that changes in CBM practices might raise transition issues. For
example, in the short run, reliability could be affected if CBM
practices are changed without providing time for those relying on it to
make other arrangements. Equities may also be a consideration when the
past economic decisions of transmission providers to use CBM were
reasonable in the historical context.
The cost of transmission capacity which may be set aside for CBM is
rolled into the basic transmission charge and apportioned pro rata
among all transmission users. The differing CBM practices of utilities
may support differing rate treatments.
[FR Doc. 99-8422 Filed 4-5-99; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 6717-01-M