Western Area Power Administration (Western)
Upper Great Plains Region (UGPR)

This listing shows older News items for the Western / Basin Electric Power Cooperative / Heartland Consumers Power District integrated transmission system called the Integrated System (IS) in the MAPP and WECC Regions.

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Older News, Last Updated: 05/13/2010 (See Main OASIS Page for recent News)


01/26/2010 (Storm Damage Update  - Updated 01/26/2010 @16:00 CST):  Summary of January 21-xx, 2010 Winter Storm Damage to IS Transmission System

Update: 1/26/2010 @ 16:00 CST: The Heskett-Dickinson  230kV line was removed from service today due to storm damage, again restricting the Miles City AC - DC - AC Converter station to only west to east operation (east to west limited to zero).  The updated listing (which doesn't yet include this latest loss of the Heskett-Dickinson 230kV line) of the related outages and other system restrictions: Summary-UGPR-Jan21st-Winter-Storm-Trans-Issues-Rev1.pdf

Update: 1/25/2010 @ 21:00 CST: The Bowman-Hettinger 230kV line was restored to service today at 19:19, allowing the limitations on the Miles City AC - DC - AC Converter station to be partially released and allowing limited east to west operation (75 MW).  The Charlie Creek - Rough Rider 115-kV line was restored to service at 17:42.  At 18:19 Eagle Butte Substation was energized allowing the 69-kV deliveries to begin to be restored.  At 18:11 Faith Substation was energized (with the restoration of hte Maurine-Faith-Eagle Butte 115-kV line at 18:11), and at 18:13 the City of Faith service was restored.

01/25/2010 (Initial Posting): UGPR experienced a severe winter storm that started the evening of January 21, 2010.  The storm started with conditions that resulted in ice formation; freezing rain, drizzle, and heavy fog.  The storm then transitioned into snow with heavy winds.  UGPR experienced several transmission line outages due to ice loading and high winds.  The snow and high winds have lasted for several days and are expected to diminish tonight.  This has limited our ability to respond to the outages.  Although there were 17 transmission lines out of service, we only experienced long term outages to Western customers at two substations.  However, the coops, municipalities, and others taking service from our facilities had issues on their facilities that resulted in over 10,000 customers without power at various times during the storm.  The Western long term outages were at Eagle Butte and Faith 115-kV substations.  The Eagle Butte substation was de-energized at 0115 on January 22, 2010.  Service was temporarily restored at 1529 on the 23, 2010.  However, Eagle Butte and Faith substations were de-energized at 0432 on January 24, 2010 and are still out of service.  UGPR personnel have been working on restoring the lines to these substations and they have been tested multiple times without success.  Due to conditions the lines needed to be patrolled from the ground and access to all of the lines was not possible.  Also conditions were such that problems developed as the line was being patrolled.  It appears that we will be able to do an aerial patrol on January 25, 2010.
A listing of the related outages and other system restrictions: Summary-UGPR-Jan21st-Winter-Storm-Trans-Issues.pdf

    If you have any questions, please contact Steve Sanders at 406-247-7436.

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12/29/2009 (New Rates Posting):  Notice - New IS Transmission Rates Effective 01/01/2010 Posted


As described in the December 29, 2009, Federal Register notice ( FRN-IS-Trans-Anc-Service-Rates-2010-0101.pdf ), the Western Area Power Administration (Western) is updating its rates for transmission and ancillary services for the Pick-Sloan Missouri Basin Program-Eastern Division (P-SMBP-ED) that are utilized for the Integrated System (IS).  The Federal Register Notice summary follows:

ACTION: Notice of Order Concerning Transmission and Ancillary Services Rates and Transmission Service Penalty Rate for Unreserved Use.
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SUMMARY: The Deputy Secretary of Energy confirmed and approved Rate Order Nos. WAPA-144 and WAPA-148 and Rate Schedules UGP-NT1, UGP-FPT1, UGP-NFPT1, UGP-AS1, UGP-AS2, UGP-AS3, UGP-AS4, UGP-AS5, UGP-AS6, UGP-AS7 and UGP-TSP1 on an interim basis. The provisional rates will be in effect until the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) confirms, approves, and places them into effect on a final basis or until they are superseded. The provisional rates will provide sufficient revenue to pay all annual costs, including interest expenses, and repay  required investments within the allowable periods.

DATES: Rate Schedules UGP-NT1, UGP-FPT1, UGP-NFPT1, UGP-AS1, UGP-AS2, UGP-AS3, UGP-AS4, UGP-AS5, and UGP-AS6 and will be placed into effect on an interim basis on January 1, 2010, and will be in effect until FERC confirms, approves, and places the rate schedules in effect on a final basis through December 31, 2014, or until the rate schedules are superseded. The revised Rate Schedules UGP-NT1, UGP-FPT1, UGP-NFPT1, UGP-AS1, UGP-AS2, UGP-AS3, UGP-AS4, UGP-AS5 and UGP-AS6 dated January 1, 2010, supersede the similarly titled rate schedules dated October 1, 2005. Rate Schedule UGP-AS7 will be placed into effect on an interim basis on January 1, 2010; however, Rate Schedule UGP-AS7 will not be charged until such time as Western's OATT is revised to provide for Generator Imbalance Service. Rate Schedule UGP-AS7 will remain in effect through December 31, 2014, or until superseded, to coincide with the other ancillary service rates in this rate order. Rate Schedule UGP-TSP1 will be placed into effect on an interim basis on January 1, 2010; however, Rate Schedule UGP-TSP1 will not be charged until such time as Western's Open Access Transmission Tariff (OATT) is revised to provide for unreserved use of transmission service penalties. Rate schedule UGP-TSP1 will also remain in effect through December 31, 2014, or until superseded, to coincide with the other rates in this rate order. Western will post notice on its Open Access Same-Time Information System (OASIS) Web site of its intent to initiate charging
for Rate Schedule UGP-AS7 or UGP-TSP1.

Western submitted the following letter to its customers on 12/29/2010 advising them of the implementation of the revised rates: IS-Rate-Calculation-2010-0101-Cover-Letter.pdf.

  The updated rates are shown in the "Current Rates/Losses" folder.  If you have any questions, please contact Steve Sanders at 406-247-7436.


12/28/2009 (Rate Update Status):  Notice – Rate Orders Signed (Rates to be effective 01/01/2010)
10/07/2009: OATT Revision Filed with FERC, Effective Date of December 1, 2009:

07/22/2009 (Updated 08/25/2009) : Corn Belt Power Cooperative (CBPC) move into Western's east-side "WAUE" Balancing Authority Area (Control Area) and addition of CBPC  transmission facilities to Integrated System (IS) effective September 1, 2009

06/26/2009 : Announcement of Public Information and Public Comment Forums - Proposed Penalty Rate for Unreserved Use of Transmission Service
06/17/2009 : Announcement of Public Information and Public Comment Forums - Proposed Updates to IS Transmission and Ancillary Service Rates
05/19/2008 (Updated 06/18/08) : Announcement of Potential Transmission Tariff Revision and Advance Announcement of Rate Adjustment

For information, please contact Steve Sanders (Western) at (406) 247-7436 or John Lockhart (NSP) at (612) 330-7921. 

• Modules A, C, D, E (see note B) of MISO Energy MarketTariff will apply
• Pay transmission tariff drive-in and drive-out rates to obtain full participation in the market
• May select Independent Entity tariff administration services
• May select Transmission Planning: Economic Studies

WAPA Tariff Revision NJ07-2-000, March 2, 2007 (Part 1 of 4)
WAPA Tariff Revision NJ07-2-000, March 2, 2007 (Part 2 of 4)
WAPA Tariff Revision NJ07-2-000, March 2, 2007 (Part 3 of 4)
WAPA Tariff Revision NJ07-2-000, March 2, 2007 (Part 4 of 4)

Western has requested that the revised Tariff become effective on May 1, 2007.

Information related to Western's OATT Revisions is available at the following URL:  http://www.wapa.gov/transmission/oatt.htm

12/05/2005 -- Removal of Netting on WAUE-SPC/SPC-WAUE paths due to ATC manipulation on SPC-WAUE path

06/09/2005 -- WAPA Filing to FERC in response to FERC's Order 2006 (Small Generator Interconnections)

<>11/19/2004 -- Notice of termination of MAPP Loss Repayment Policies, Effective 00:00 CST on Nov 1, 2004

Effective,  00:00 CST on November 1, 2004, the Western Area Power Administration - Upper Great Plains Region (WAPA) will terminate implementation of MAPP Loss Repayment Policies that became effective on February 1, 2001, and will no longer require collection of 3rd party losses by WAPA when WAPA is identified as the Source Scheduling Participant (SSP) by the Transmission Customer.  This change to policy does not preclude MAPP members who were responsible for providing MAPP losses prior to February 1, 2001 from continuing to provide those losses.

With 30 day prior notification to change of policy, WAPA reserves the right to reinstate MAPP LRP 3rd party loss collection procedure.

If you have any scheduling/tagging questions, please contact:

Current Scheduling Day:   Generation Dispatcher at 605-882-7584
Next  Scheduling Day:      Generation Dispatcher at 605-882-7542

02/14/2005 Update -- OATT Revision & Large Generator Interconnection Procedures/Agreement

Western Area Power Administration has filed a non-jurisdictional modification to its Open Access Transmission Service Tariff (OATT) with the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC).  This filing includes the standardized Large Generator Interconnection Procedures (LGIP) and Large Generator Interconnection Agreement (LGIA), as well as other adjustments to Western's OATT, including increasing the application processing fee to $3500 across all Western Regions to reflect current costs, and also restoring the deposit requirements in Sections 17.3 and 29.2 for requests of one year duration or greater.

 

An effective date of February 25, 2005, was requested in this filing to FERC.

 

Western's Upper Great Plains (UGP) Region will be working with entities that currently have pending requests in the UGP Generation Interconnection queue to transition them under the Large Generator Interconnection Procedures pursuant to Section 5.1 of the LGIP and the associated business practices posted on Western’s UGP OASIS site.

 

Detailed information regarding this filing can be found at the following web site:  http://www.wapa.gov/oatt.htm.

 

<>11/01/2004  The Western Area Power Administration (Western) is revising its Open Access Transmission Service Tariff (Tariff).  Western’s existing Tariff was approved by the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (Commission) on April 12, 2002.  Western intends to update certain Tariff provisions, adopt the principal features of the Commission’s Standard Large Generator Interconnection Procedures (LGIP) and Standard Large Generator Interconnection Agreement (LGIA) consistent with applicable law, and to make additional changes to further Western’s mission and transmission marketing efforts.  Western has published a Federal Register notice available at http://www.wapa.gov/media/fedreg.htm announcing a public meeting and an opportunity for informal comments on Western’s revised Tariff prior to filing with the Commission.

The revised Tariff, a summary of changes Western intends to make to its existing Tariff, and information about the tariff revision process is posted on Western’s Web site at http://www.wapa.gov/oatt.htm.

<>02/09/2004 -- Standards of Conduct - WAPA Informational Filing to FERC 2/9/04

Western submitted the following Standards of Conduct (SOC) Informational Filing to FERC on 02/09/04.

<>WAPA SOC Informational Filing, 02/09/2004 (Word document)


<>03/04/2003 -- Notice of Proposed Extension of the Transmission Service Rate Schedules  <>
Western posted a Federal Register Notice on 03/04/2003 regarding extension of the Transmission Service Rate Schedules through September 30, 2005.  Federal Register Notice, 03/04/2003  (PDF document) <>
11/20/2002 -- Notice of Initiation of Process to Extend Tariff Rate Schedules 

Western is beginning the process to extend the Tariff Rate Schedules, through September 30, 2005.

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07/30/2002 -- Update to Timing Requirements regarding E-tags (Updated: 10/07/2002)
 

Future Day Scheduling: (New: 10/07/2002)

 

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  <>04/23/2002 -- Posting of A/WAPA/YTW-YTP// and A/WAPA/YTP/YTW// Paths and Associated ATC's 

Effective at 00:00 (Central Time) on 05/01/2002 (concurrent with the rate changes), the boundary of the Integrated System will extend to the Yellowtail (PacifiCorp) substation (New POR/POD of "YTP").  Western has posted the new "YTP" POR/POD and included this new point in the valid POR/POD combinations of the appropriate existing transmission paths.  In addition, Western has posted two new transmission paths on its OASIS page : A/WAPA/YTW-YTP// and A/WAPA/YTP-YTW//.  These paths represent the 230kV tie line between the Yellowtail (WAPA) substation and the Yellowtail (PacifiCorp) substation.  Western, in its latest coordinated review of the Yellowtail substation cost allocations between the Western Upper Great Plains Region and the Western Rocky Mountain Region, has agreed that approximately 25% of the capacity of the 230kV tie line will be included in the Integrated System (IS) based upon the annual Yellowtail substation costs included in the IS rate.  Therefore, the Upper Great Plains Region's share of the tie line is equal to a 120 MW TTC limit in either direction.  Available Transmission Capacity (ATC) values will be posted on the two new paths.

<>WACM Control Area Scheduling Requirements:
Transmission service from/to the new POR/POD of "YTP" will still cross Western's Rocky Mountain Region control area (WACM), and therefore, scheduling and tagging arrangments will still need to be made with the WACM control area, in addition to the WAUW and PACE control areas.

  <>02/04/2002 -- Posting of Additional WAPA Scheduled Outages 

Note:  Since the conversion of the Mid-Continent Area Power Pool (MAPP) Security Center to the Mid-West Independent System Operator (MISO) St Paul Security Center, Western’s submitted transmission outage schedules for the back-to-back DC Ties between MAPP and WSCC and Western’s facilities in the WSCC region have been omitted from the Transmission Outage Schedules posted on the MAPP OASIS. Therefore, until such time as these additional outage schedules are restored to the standard MAPP/MISO outage lists, Western will post these additional outage schedules on the WAPA OASIS page under the INFORMATION page, and at the following URL:

<>http://www.wapa.gov/ugp/oasis/WAPA-Additional-Outages.htm

 

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