Agenda
Joint meeting of the 
Committee on Regional Electric Power Cooperation
and the
Western Interconnection Regional Advisory Body 

Holiday Inn on the Bay

San Diego, California

 April 8-9, 2009

Schedule of Meetings
 

Monday 
April 6, 2009

Tuesday 
April 7, 2009

Wednesday 
April 8, 2009

Thursday 
April 9, 2009

1:00 p.m. - 5:30 p.m. 
WIEB Meeting

6:30 p.m. WIEB Board dinner
        -
Indigo Grill -

8:00 a.m. - 12 noon 
WIEB Meeting

1:00 p.m. - 5:00 p.m.
WIRAB Annual Meeting

8:00 a.m. - 5:30 p.m.
Joint CREPC / WIRAB meeting

 

8:00 a.m. - 12 noon
Joint WIRAB / CREPC meeting

12 noon - 1:00 p.m. CREPC business meeting

 

 

Pacific Ballroom
Wednesday, April 8

 

7:00 a.m. Continental breakfast
8:00 a.m. Introductions
Review agenda

     John Savage, CREPC chair

8:15 a.m. Western developments since October meeting
    ·   Western Governors' policies on transmission and renewables [pdf]
               Doug Larson, WIEB
    ·   Western electricity industry leaders group [pdf]
               Mike Niggli, Sempra
    ·   WECC long-term transmission planning seminar 
               Steve Walton, WECC
    ·   Western Renewable Energy Zone project and WREZ model [pdf]
               John Savage - WREZ Technical Committee Chair
    ·   Western Interconnection resource planning meeting [pdf]
               John Savage
    ·   Promoting WREGIS certificates from third party generators [pdf]
               Lisa Schwartz, Regulatory Assistance Project
     Background information
          Western Governors' policies
               Resolution 08-8, Changes Needed in Electric Power System to
                   Support Clean Energy Goals
               Renewables and transmission transition paper
               January 6 Governors' letter to western CEOs
               January 27 Governors' letter to Congress
          WECC long-term transmission planning seminar
          Western Interconnection resource planning meeting
               Agenda and presentation
               Next steps
          Western Renewable Energy Zone project and model
               Website project
               QRA map
               WREZ model
9:30 a.m. Obama Administration and Congressional initiatives
    ·   Administration energy structure and appointments
    ·   Energy provisions of the Federal stimulus bill implementation [pdf]
             o Larry Mansueti, DOE
    ·   Clean Renewable Energy and Economic Development Act (Reid bill)
             o Mary Cain, Senator Reid's staff
     Background information
          Energy economic stimulus bill
          Summary of Reid bill
          Summary of Bingaman draft
10:30 a.m. Break
10:45 a.m. Complementary actions by the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission
 and other FERC developments
      ·   John Carlson and other FERC representatives
     Background information
          FERC transmission incentives
          FERC technical conference on integrating renewables
          Chairman Wellinghoff testimony on transmission policy
          Fourth Circuit decision on FERC backstop authority
11:45 p.m. Lunch on your own
1:00 p.m. Transmission project development
     ·   Overview and timing of major proposed transmission projects [pdf]
           Steve Walton, WECC 
     Background information
          Proposed transmission projects
1:15 p.m. Panel on key transmission expansion issues
Five questions are posed on transmission expansion issues.  The parties identified
under each question will address their issue.  
1.  What's the range of potential transmission needs in the West under
      different futures?
          a.  Situation analysis [pdf]
                Doug Larson - WIEB
          b.  What interconnection-wide scenarios are being studied now? [pdf]
                Brad Nickell - WECC
                    i.  2008 study findings
                   ii.  2009 study requests
          c.  What scenarios need to be considered?
                    i.  Kip Sikes, Western Energy Industry Leaders group
          d.   Is a more systematic development of future scenarios needed?
     Background information
          TEPPC 2008 report 
              Executive summary; Part 1; Part 2; Part 4
          2009 study requests
          E3 study for WEIL group
2:00 p.m. 2.  How do WAPA and BPA plan to use stimulus bill funds for transmission?
          a.  Timothy Meeks, Administrator, Western Area Power Administration
          b.  Stephen Wright, Administrator and CEO, Bonneville Power Association [pdf]
     Background information
          Meeks | Wright | Ellenbecker testimony before House Energy and 
               Water subcommittee
          WAPA 
              Federal register March 4 notice
              Request for interest
             ARRA activities
          BPA February 19, 2009 press release
2:45 p.m. Break
3:00 p.m. 3.  Will the current incremental expansion approach work or does the
     Western Interconnection need a master transmission plan?
          a.  Tom Schneider, WECC
          b.  Jeff Miller, Columbia Grid  [pdf]
          c.  Larry Mansueti, DOE
          d.  Kevin Kelly, FERC
3:45 p.m. 4.  How can we create the capability to rapidly increase transmission capacity
     from areas of large amounts of renewable resources?
      ·   Do we need to "supersize" lines now?
      ·   Are there ways to preserve capacity expansion options (e.g. overbuilding towers)
      ·   What are the financing and permitting obstacles?
      ·   What are the regulatory obstacles? 
           a.  Jerry Vaninetti, Trans-Elect [pdf]
           b.  John Dunn, TransCanada  [pdf]
           c.  Kip Sikes, Idaho Power
           d.  Jim Tarpey, CO PUC [pdf]
           e.  Walt George, BLM  [pdf]
5:00 p.m. Recess

 

Pacific Ballroom
Thursday, April 9

 

7:00 a.m. Continental breakfast
8:00 a.m. Panel on key expansion issues (cont'd)
5.  Why do developers of parallel projects choose to coordinate or not
     coordinate their projects?  Does the WECC path rating process evaluate the
     interaction between proposed projects?  Will the system fail because key
     decisions (e.g., duplicative lines) are not resolved until the permitting stage?
          a.  John Dunn, TransCanada (Chinook, Zephyr, Northern lights) [pdf]
          b.  John Leland, Northwestern Energy (Mountain States Intertie Project) [pdf]
          c.  John Cupparo, Pacificorp (Energy Gateway, Hemingway-Captain Jack) [pdf]
                                                       (Boardman-Hemingway, Walla Walla-McNary)
          d.  Mario Villar, NV Energy (Ely Energy Center) [pdf]
          e.  Bill Boyd, TransWest Express (TransWest Express) [pdf]
          f.   Mark Etherton, Sun Zia (Sun Zia) [pdf]
          h.  Walt George, BLM
9:45 a.m. Break
10:00 a.m. Planning for flexibility to integrate variable renewable generation
Transmission planning and expansion activities need to be complemented by
realistic planning for ancillary services to provide system balancing in order to
integrate increasing amounts of variable renewable generation coming onto the
grid.  Many of the regions of the west that are best candidates for transmission
expansion to open up new renewable resources (Montana, Wyoming) do not
have large amounts of available balancing resources to manage variable
generation.  In order to develop renewables in a reliable and cost effective
fashion, system flexibility issues need to be better managed and coordinated by
policymakers, developers and utilities.  This session will examine:
          ■  System balancing resources to integrate higher levels of renewable generation;
          ■  Supply and demand-side resources that can provide system flexibility,
          ■  Activities currently underway to address these issues across the West, and
          ■  The role of integrated resource planning to explicitly address flexibility resources.
      Moderator:  Elliot Mainzer, BPA
      Panelists
          a.  Maury Galbraith, NW Power and Conservation Council  [pdf]
          b.  Charlie Reinhold, WestConnect
          c.  Sharon Helms, Northern Tier Transmission Group  [pdf]
          d.  Kristi Wallis, Columbia Grid
          e.  Brad Nickell, WECC
          f.   John Leland, NorthWestern Energy [pdf]
          g.  Grant Rosenblum, CAISO  [pdf]
          h.  Steve Beuning, Xcel Energy  [pdf]
          i.   Stefan Bird, Pacificorp [pdf]
     Background information
          Joint initiatives
          Columbia Grid
          WestConnect
          Northern Tier Transmission Group
          Variable generation subcommittee
Noon CREPC business meeting
     Draft CREPC 2009-2010 workplan
1:00 p.m. Adjourn