The Western Interconnection Regional Advisory Body (WIRAB) commissioned a whitepaper from GridSME on potential seams issues that could occur as the transition to multiple Reliability Coordinators (RCs) occurs in the Western Interconnection. The purpose of this whitepaper is to highlight for public utility commissioners and policymakers the importance of the Reliability Coordination function and to describe the potential issues when multiple RCs share responsibility for the coordinated operation across system boundaries and seams. The purpose is not to describe any solutions to these issues, but rather identify them as issues to be address under this new paradigm. The issues determined to be of greatest concern to reliability are elaborated in Section IV of the document and include:
- System Operating Limit and Interconnection Reliability Operating Limit Coordination
- Wide Area View and the Future of the Westwide System Model
- Outage Coordination
- Remedial Action Scheme Coordination
- Oscillatory Dynamics
This whitepaper is compiled through research on the relevant issues, reviews of applicable NERC and Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) documents, and extensive interviews with relevant personnel at the North American Electric Reliability Corporation (NERC), the Western Electricity Coordinating Council (WECC), Peak Reliability, the Southwestern Power Pool (SPP), and the California ISO (CAISO).
04-11-18-GridSME-White-Paper-Reliability-Coordination-in-Western-Interconnection