The 2008 WECC Preschedule Calendar was posted for comments on the WECC website from December 13, 2006 – January 15, 2007. During the January 2007 ISAS meeting in San Diego, the calendar was voted on and approved for posting. Voting by Transmission Providers was 20 For; 2 Against; 1 Abstention; and voting by Transmission Customers was 11 For; 4 Against; 0 Abstentions. There was quite a bit of discussion before the vote was taken that included the following (as quoted from the ISAS Meeting minutes): • • • • • • • • • • • Multiple days never more than 3 days at a time New month scheduled around because of new contracts just starting Problems with so many days out and conflicts with tariff Friday and Saturday, Sunday, Monday because of gas trading and Good Friday cause problems. Gas is trading Saturday, Sunday, and Monday. It is too premature to take a vote on the Prescheduling Calendar. The MIS will also need to have input on the Preschedule Calendar. The calendar may need to be changed short of 7 days to show a compromise, i.e., fewer holidays. Re-evaluation of the days need to happen. Substantiation of the costs needs to be shown to support the additional costs of staffing to go to 7 day. Joint Task Force could be created, discussed in the April meeting, and then brought to the OC in the summer. 6 day scheduling week could cut the additional cost of staffing. MIS is looking at trying to find the optimal way to preschedule. FERC’s review of the Gas and Electric inter-dependency has been completed and this would be a good time.
In response to the above comments, any changes that a group or individual would like to see made to the existing approved WECC Preschedule Calendar Guidelines should be submitted as an agenda item for the ISAS meeting. The Guidelines were created and approved in February 2003 and revised in April 2005. It was always intended that the calendar would be created yearly based on the approved Guidelines in effect at that time and posted to the WECC website with no further approval required. The calendar would be the same whether it is posted early in a year or later in a year because the Guidelines by which it is created are clearly set. The WECC Preschedule Calendar Guidelines will remain in effect until such time that industry changes occur that make it obsolete or changes are voted on and approved to change existing principles. Following are responses to comments received during the posting of the 2008 WECC Preschedule Calendar:
To make transition into day-light-saving times smoother, we suggest the work group to look into possibility of making these days One-Day scheduling. This way, the pre-scheduling staff does not have to deal with new time and old time in one day. This becomes confusing if the Posted: 14.Dec 2006 - scheduling staff is new or folks are encountering system problems in regard to dealing with the time change. 12:05 Raymond Vojdani Thanks for the opportunity to comment.
RESPONSE: When the guidelines were initially developed and approved in February 2003, it was voted NOT to schedule around the Sunday for Daylight Savings Time. Any recommended changes to the as-approved guidelines for the Preschedule Calendar would need to be brought before the ISAS for a vote.
Kerry Ledgerwood
I noticed for 2008 we are not scheduling around the Schedulers Conferences again. Will this decision be revisited at ISAS in Jan 2007?
Thank you Posted: 19.Dec 2006 - Kerry Ledgerwood Puget Sound Energy 15:54
RESPONSE: In the April 2005 ISAS meeting, it was voted to eliminate special scheduling days for the WECC Scheduler’s meeting, the NWPP Scheduler’s meeting, and Columbus Day beginning in 2006. Any recommended changes to the as-approved guidelines for the Preschedule Calendar would need to be brought before the ISAS for a vote.
Anonymous Unregistered User Posted: 28.Dec 2006 -
I agree the change of standard time to daylight savings can be easier with a one day preschedule however wouldn't a one day preschedule for a Sunday be hard to make happen. Would that mean Tuesday trades Wed, Thur, Wed trades Friday Saturday, and Thursday trades Sunday, Friday trades Monday? That remedy seems too complex for the problem.
11:18 RESPONSE: You are correct in how the prescheduling would need to be set up to schedule around the Sunday for Daylight Savings Time. Since the initial calendar guidelines developed in February 2003 did not include scheduling around Daylight Savings Time, any recommended changes to the as-approved guidelines for the Preschedule Calendar would need to be brought before the ISAS for a vote.
[Rick Wahl: ]I agree the change of standard time to daylight savings can be easier with a one day preschedule however wouldn't a one day preschedule for a Sunday be hard to make happen. Would that mean Tuesday trades Wed, Thur, Wed trades Friday Saturday, and Thursday trades Sunday, Friday trades Monday? That remedy seems too complex Posted: 28.Dec 2006 - for the problem. [/quote] 11:20 Anonymous Unregistered User RESPONSE: See previous response. This was a duplicate comment.
Anonymous Unregistered User
Rick Wahl: I've heard it mentioned that attendance to the Scheduler's meeting would be better if the Calander worked around the meeting schedule.
Posted: 28.Dec 2006 - RESPONSE: When this issue was discussed at the ISAS meeting in April 2005, many felt eliminating special scheduling for the 11:24 Scheduler’s meetings would have this effect; however, the motion for eliminating these special scheduling days passed with 25 in favor, 8 against, and 2 abstentions.
Anonymous Unregistered User Posted: 3.Jan 2007 11:22
We should be working towards reducing the number of multiple scheduling days. I would suggest that we work towards only having multiple scheduling days around NERC holidays.
RESPONSE: This issue has been discussed at length at various ISAS meetings. Any recommended changes to the as-approved guidelines for the Preschedule Calendar would need to be brought before the ISAS for a vote.
Anonymous
How many 24 hour PSE shops are in existence now vs 10 years ago? The
Unregistered User Posted: 10.Jan 2007 14:04
industry and markets have changed. Do away with a "Prescheduling Calendar" it's an inefficient relic of days past. There are reams of evidence describing the additional costs associated with having to trade multiple day packages (some attached below). Sure staff requirements would increase. But hasn’t re-regulation brought that upon us anyway? How much longer do things have to be done different in the West just because?
Excerpts from Energy Market Report: November 20th, 2006 WECC Region The 2 to 5$/MWh gains in daytime energy prices were most likely due to either spot natural gas (which also had a big day in the West), or to the increased risk inherent in trading for energy two days in advance. November 21st, 2006 WECC Region The big factor for wholesale energy prices for the day was actually the trading package itself, as it included a flat Thursday off-peak for the holiday, combined with regular Friday and Saturday energy. December 12th, 2006 WECC Region Not only did lightload prices decrease by about 6 to 8$/MWh, on average, as a result of returning to normal day-ahead blocks, heavy-load prices were down about 3 to 4$/MWh on their own.
RESPONSE: The preschedule calendar guidelines were developed in February 2003 in response to requests by the industry to have set holidays that the WECC would schedule around each year. Those guidelines would then be used to create the preschedule calendar with no need for lengthy discussions on this subject which had been occurring at ISAS meetings for several years. Oftentimes, when scheduling around holidays, it becomes necessary to schedule three or four days in advance and may require utilities to nominate gas before final prices are known. Price changes that may occur after the preschedule process has been completed, as well as load forecast changes due to weather, have, at times, been very costly to PSEs. In 2006, a MIC/ISAS Task Force was created to conduct special testing to determine if changing the preschedule process from scheduling two days on Thursday and two days on Friday to scheduling three
days on Friday would help to eliminate this problem. Several special “three-day scheduling on Friday” tests were conducted but none of the data received during these tests provided any conclusive evidence that a change was warranted. Although comments such as those provided above certainly indicate a disparity in prices between one day scheduling and two day scheduling, there has been no request made to change the current preschedule calendar or even to do away with it and go to seven-day scheduling. At such time that this occurs, the Preschedule Calendar will be dealt with accordingly.