April ATF eTag Issue

1. April ATF eTag Issue Sheryl Welch, ATFWG Chair August 20, 2014 Portland, OR

2. Statement of the Problem • Generator was incorrectly registered in Electric Industry Registry (EIR) as a sink. • Generator has been removed as a sink in EIR. • PSE tagged to and from the generator between April 28th thru April 30th. • Tags using the incorrect sink were discovered May 1st. • The PSE was asked to correct the tag problem by using the original source and the final sink with a wheel thru the generator. • Until the ATF tags were implemented, the Primary Inadvertent continued to accrue.

3. Sequence of Events • 29 WECC Schedule Change Request Forms were submitted to WECC Dispute Reports • Submitted on May 1, 2014 approximately 10:30 PDT • Contained 156 Scheduled hours • 86 of the scheduled hours reported “Wrong Sink” • 9 Balancing Authority (BAs) involved • 70 of the scheduled hours reported “Wrong Source” • 2 BAs involved

4. Sequence Events (Cont’d) • WECC Schedule Change Request Forms were completed at approximately 1300 MDT on May 1st. • Required two WECC staff members • Approximately 16:59, WECC received a WECCNet message from BA1 reporting that it was not participating in the Automatic Time Error correction until “OATI corrects their primary inadvertent calculations.” • At 08:19 on May 2nd, WECC started an investigation with BA1 to determine why the inadvertant was incorrect.

5. Sequence of Events (Cont’d) • WECC received a telephone call from BA2 wanting to know why there were so many issues in WIT regarding Primary Inadvertents. • Review of WIT showed the Inadvertent Interchange Accumulations for BA2 was during the same 3-day period as the WECC Schedule Change Request Forms. • PSE notified BA1 that ATF tags would not be ready for implementation until late on May 2nd or not until Monday, May 5th.

6. Sequence of Events (Cont’d) • After notified by WECC, BA2 requested that either the original schedules be put back into WIT or the ATF tags get implemented immediately. • Until ATF tags are implemented, WIT showed up to 4,000 amount of erroneous “payback” of accumulated primary inadvertent through Automatic Time Error Correction (ATEC). • WECC instructed the PSE to approve and implement ALL ATF tags immediately or all schedules would be returned to WIT until the ATF tags could be ready for processing. • Until ATF tags are implemented, primary inadvertent would continue to accumulate. • PSE submitted ATF Tags at 10:47 on May 2nd.

7. SUMMARY • Prior to ATF tags, Primary Inadvertent values from April 28th thru April 30, 2014, were as high as 4,000 MW • After ATF tags, the On-Peak Primary Inadvertent resulted in only 287 MW (prior inadvertent value). • Primary Inadvertent is to be paid back each scheduled hour through ATEC • If problem is not caught early, BAs could payback a large amount of Primary Inadvertent. • If ATF tags are not implement timely, Primary Inadvertent could in fact be in opposite direction of the correct Accumulated Primary Inadvertent.

8. Compliance Issue • Effective April 1, 2014, WECC Standard BAL-004-WECC-02 R3: Each Balancing Authority shall keep its ATEC in service, with an allowable exception period of less than or equal to an accumulated 24 hours per calendar quarter for ATEC to be out of service. • This issue was resolved within 21hours. • However, the time gets accounted for in the quarterly accumulation.

9. LESSONS LEARNED for ATF Process • ATF tags should be created and implemented in a reasonable amount of time shortly after the agreed upon WECC Schedule Change Request Forms are implemented to avoid significant Accumulated Primary Inadvertent. • Avoid creating ATF tags after 2:00 pm (PDT). • WECC staff is on MDT