WECC-0128 VAR-001-4.1 Voltage and Reactive Control Variance
1.Welcome
Mr. W. Shannon Black, WECC staff, called the meeting to order at 10:00 a.m. on September 19, 2017. A quorum is not required. A list of attendees is attached as Exhibit A. Mr. W. Shannon Black reviewed the WECC Antitrust Policy.
2.Approve Agenda
The drafting team meeting agenda was approved by consensus.
3.ReviewMinutes
This is the first duly noticed meeting of this drafting team. There were no minutes to address.
4.Review of Previous Action Items
- None
5.Background and Procedures
SAR Location and Scope
TheStandard Authorization Request (SAR)is currently located at the DT’s project page on the SAR Form accordion.
This project is a mandated five-year review of the variance in accordance with the WECC Reliability Standards Development Procedures, Maintenance of RRS and Ops Documents stating “The WSC shall ensure that each RRS is reviewed at least once every five years from the effective date of the most recent version of the RRS.” The VAR WECC Regional Variance was: 1) developed as WECC-0046, 2) approved by the NERC Board of Trustees on May 9, 2012, and 3) FERC approved on June 20, 2013.
Changes to language outside of the Regional Variance are not within the scope of this request.
Proposed Remedy
The assigned drafting team should review the document in its entirety with specific consideration for recommendations provided by NERC in its Periodic Review Recommendations for VAR-001-4.1 - Voltage and Reactive Control, May 19, 2017. Those recommendations include, but are not limited to:
1) Consideration whether VAR‐002‐WECC‐2 (Automatic Voltage Regulators (AVR)) should be retired considering the most recent versions of VAR‐001‐4.1 and VAR‐002‐4 which require all AVRs to be in service and in voltage control mode unless exempted by the TOP based on identified criteria.
2) In VAR‐001‐4.1, Requirement R5 has no requirement to identify the “initial” status of the PSS. However, VAR‐002‐4 Requirement R3 requires the Generator Operator to notify the Transmission Operator of a power system stabilizer (PSS) status change. The initial status of the PSS should be clarified within the notification required by Requirement R5. The status of the PSS raises the question whether any of the VAR‐501‐WECC‐2 (Power System Stabilizer), or any subsequent new version, PSS requirements should be established similar to AVR requirements for inclusion of the continent‐wide standards. Industry comments affirm that it is not necessary to require notification of the initial state of the PSS as regional practices, interconnection agreements, and data specifications can address the initial state of the PSS.
3) The WECC variance E.A.18 is specific to external control loops to the manufacturer’s AVR control loop. Due to the system configuration of the WECC, it was one of the earlier adopters of AVR and PSS controls. Due to the age of the controls or difficulty with setting reactive droop compensation on some older style controls, external loop controls were implemented from the plant control system. This can be done via DCS or SCADA. Variance E.A.18 requires that if external controls are used, that they do not affect the AVR’s transient response during fault conditions. Industry comments did not reveal any reliability related need to address external control loops within the continent‐wide Reliability Standard. Comments identified MOD‐025 or MOD‐026 as a more appropriate standard to address the need to document and communicate the impact of external control loop actions on the AVR to the TOP.
Drafting Team Identification
On DATE, 2017, the WECC Standards Committee (WSC) approved the following roster for the WECC-0128 drafting team.
Mr. XXXX volunteered to serve as the DT chair.
The DT roster includes the following individuals:
Name / BackgroundAlex Chua
Pacific Gas and Electric / Mr. Chua is a former WECC and NERC drafting team member.
- Electrical Engineer with 15 years of experience working in the transmission, distribution and generation aspects of the company.
- The last 4 years have been focused on regulatory compliance for Generator Owner and Operators.
- Review and negotiate voltage schedules with transmission operators.
- Work with automation group on AVR/PSS controls and generating notifications for status changes to our TOP and BA
Shane Kronebusch
L and S Electric / Mr. Kronebusch is the Lead Electrical Engineer and Subject Matter Expert for excitation systems, protection and hydro governors and unit controls for L&S Electric, Inc. He has over 27 years of experience in the utility industry.
Prior to joining L&S Electric in 2010, Mr. Kronebusch’s responsibilities included coordinating and preforming WECC testing of generation assets as an employee of BC Hydro Generation Engineering and Maintenance Services. He was responsible for commissioning of both new and rehabilitated units ranging in size from 30MW to 500MW. Mr. Kronebusch was tasked as a subject matter expert for exciters and governors as part of the BC Hydro Equipment Health Rating program.
Mr. Kronebusch first became involved with WECC testing after the July and August 1996 system disturbances that initiated the testing program. He has been a member of the WECC Control Work Group since 2006.
Mario Kiresich
Southern California Edison Grid Control / Mr. Kiresichhas been in the Utility industry since 1997 and has held several positions: Call Center as a Customer Service Specialist, Groundman, Substation Electrician, Transmission Dispatcher, Procedure Administrator, Trainer, and Substation Supervisor.
- 10 years in BES operations as Dispatcher, Compliance, Procedures, and Training.
- Transmission Operator and NERC Certified at the RC level
NERC Member as follows: 1) 2015-12 EOP-PRT (Observer), 2) 2017-03 FAC PRT (Member), 3) 2013-03 GMDSDT (Observer), 4) GMDTF (Member), 5) 2015-08 EOP SDT (Observer), and 6) 2015-07 COM-001 SDT (Vice Chair)
Alvin Pinkston,
Black Hills Corporation /
- 5 years Transmission / Distribution Control Center Manager
- 5 years as Operator Trainer
- 25 years of generation experience
- 37 years in electric utilities operations
Greg Anderson,
Southern California Edison / Mr. Anderson is the Subject Matter Expert for generation and excitation systems for the Southern California Edison Company. He has over 33 years of experience in the utility industry, with responsibilities for coordinating WECC testing of generation assets. He has been a WECC participant since 1997 and a member of the Control Work Group since 2003.
Baj Agrawal
Arizona Public Service Company / Mr. Agrawal has over 40 years of transmission and generation experience. He has been involved in generator excitation systems, power system stabilizers, and subsynchronous resonance.
Mr. Agrawal has served on several NERC and WECC drafting teams including MOD-26, 27. He is currently serving on the NERC TPL-005-1 (Single Point of Failure) Drafting Team, the WECC Modeling Validation Work Group, and the North American Transmission Forum, and the Modeling Practices Work Group Core team.
Mr. Agrawal hold his Ph.D. in education.
Mr. Black explained that the above listed DT members will be allowed to vote on matters affecting the proposed document and will ultimately be those who will decide whether to forward the proposed document to the WSC for disposition. A simple majority vote is needed to forward the document to the WSC.
Mr. Black is WECC Staff Support.
Development Principles
The DT’s Development Principles includes the following, unless otherwise stated in the WECC Reliability Standards Development Procedures as modified from time-to-time:
●All DT meetings shall be open and publicly noticed on the WECC website. A 15-day notice period is required to hold a DT meeting.
●Notice of each DT meeting shall be posted on the WECC website for a minimum of 15 days prior to the meeting.
●All participants eligible to vote in a Ballot Pool retain full opportunity and representation to vote on the final document.
●Nothing in these Development Principles shall infringe on an individual’s appellate rights under the Reliability Standards Development Procedures (Procedures).
●All DT members are encouraged to always be present; proxy voting by a DT member is not allowed.
●The Procedures do not require a quorum to be present to conduct business or before a DT vote is taken.
●The Procedures do not require notice that a DT vote will be taken.
●The Procedures do not require notice that a subset of the DT will meet.
●An affirmative majority vote of the entire DT is required to forward a document to the WSC with a recommendation for ballot. For all other actions, a simple majority vote of the DT members present is sufficient to carry a ballot.
●DT voting may take place face-to-face, electronically, in real-time, or within a scheduled window.
●Voting on which position to adopt on a drafting issue is reserved for the DT members.
●Voting on inclusion or exclusion of specific language in the document under development is reserved for the DT members.
●Voting on minutes and related business motions is reserved for the DT members.
●Straw Polls are of excellent advisory value; however, the DT is not obligated to abide by a straw poll.
Those in attendance agreed by consensus that the WECC-0124 BAL-004-WECC-2, ATEC Modification Drafting Team adopt the above Development Principles for purposes of conducting the team’s routine business and enhancing the team’s ability to meet its due process requirements.
Minutes Approval
To help expedite each meeting, the DT chair agreed to review the minutes from each previous meeting and provide a standing motion to approve those minutes and the proposed agenda, unless errors are otherwise noted.
Process Review – W. Shannon Black
Mr. Black briefed the team on the location and content of the Reliability Standards Development Procedures (Procedures) as well as the scope of the Standards Authorization Request (SAR). The Procedures can be found on the Standards Home Page.
The team was instructed that disposition of the work product ultimately lies with the WSC; however, generally, the team will ask for a majority vote to advance the work product through each stage of development.
The DT was advised that the final work product must reflect the scope of the SAR. If the DT opts to expand the scope of the SAR, the WSC will need to approve the expanded scope.
6.Drafting
TEXT
7.Review of New Action Items
- None
8.Upcoming Meetings
September 26, 2017, 10:00 a.m. to 12:00 p.m...... Webinar
TDB...... Webinar
TBD...... Webinar
9.Adjourn
The meeting was adjourned without objection.
Exhibit A: Attendance List
Members in Attendance
Alex Chua, Pacific Gas and Electric...... Team Member
Shane Kronebusch, L and S Electric, Inc...... Team Member
Marion Kiresich, Southern California Edison...... Team Member
Alvin Pinkston, Black Hill Corporation...... Team Member
Greg Anderson, Southern California Edison...... Team Member
Baj Agrawal, Arizona Public Service Company...... Team Member
Members not in Attendance
Others in Attendance
NAME...... No Further Information (NFI)NAME...... No Further Information (NFI)
NAME...... No Further Information (NFI)
Western Electricity Coordinating Council