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SEPTEMBER 2004 Study Recommends Ways to Tap Western Wind
Resource
In recognition of this conundrum, Wyoming Governor Dave Freudenthal (D) and former Utah Governor Mike Leavitt (R) launched a regional transmission planning process for the Rocky Mountain area in 2003. The Rocky Mountain Area Transmission Study (RMATS) began in September 2003 and was tasked with identifying necessary and viable transmission and generation projects in the Rocky Mountain region. "The present system of transmission planning is in need of an overhaul," Leavitt said. "It is time we work together to improve the way we deliver reliable energy to citizens and business in the West." "It is difficult to overstate the importance of developing transmission in the West, and this is exactly the sort of event that is going to make that possible," Freudenthal said. "One goal has already been met, in that a diverse group of stakeholders interested in solutions has been brought to the table. I hope that they will continue to encourage others who could not be here today, but might be inclined to play an active role in the future." The Phase I report from the RMATS process is now finished and will be unveiled at the stakeholders' meeting to be held in Salt Lake City on September 29. Governors Freudenthal, Judy Martz (R-Mont.), and Olene Walker (R-Utah) will participate in the meeting, along with Federal Energy Regulatory Commissioner Nora Brownell. The group has identified the actual transmission upgrades that appear likely to be the most cost effective to serve new wind and coal generation in the Rocky Mountain West. The meeting will feature presentations on the RMATS Phase I process, study results, recommendations, and next steps. "This study addresses huge, high-quality wind resources in Wyoming and Montana," said Ron Lehr, AWEA's Western regional representative. "The study documents the economic potential to open vast new areas in the interior West to wind development. It involved serious engagement by those in authority to make the necessary changes happen: governors, state officials, public utility commissioners, transmission owning utilities, wind companies, and coal developers were all part of the process." Working with developers and regional advocates, AWEA put together proposals for 12,000 MW of new wind projects by 2013 in the five-state study area that included Wyoming, Montana, Colorado, Utah, and Idaho. A new group, called "West Wind Wires," was formed and funded by industry and a foundation to advocate for wind energy in the RMATS study, and in similar subregional as well as regional transmission studies in the West. Roger Hamilton, former chairman of the Oregon Public Utilities Commission and former energy policy advisor to Governor John Kitzhaber, is the policy director for the group, while David Olsen, former CEO of Patagonia and more recently president of Clipper Windpower, has been serving as technical director. A draft report was released last month. In addition to specific upgrades and expansions to serve cities in the study region, the draft recommended building two new 500-kV "export paths" from the interior to the West Coast. The report identified five potential routes for the new lines: roughly from eastern Montana to Washington, from Idaho to Oregon, from Idaho to northern California, from Idaho to southern Nevada, and from northern Utah to southern Nevada. The next phase of the study will recommend which of the five would be optimal, based on technical studies, rights-of-way, cost recovery, and financing options. The report estimates that the transmission upgrades will cost nearly $4.3 billion, but could bring in over $1 billion a year in economic benefits to the region, primarily from lower-cost coal and wind resources displacing higher-cost natural gas plants in California and Arizona. The expansion and construction of new transmission lines is scheduled for the 2008-2013 time period. Wind advocates point out that there is the potential to increase inter-regional power transfer years before physical upgrades could be constructed. In the shorter term, there are a number of operational steps that could be taken to use the existing lines more efficiently. The way that transmission capacity rights are currently allocated in the West, companies must either reserve the capacity on a long-term "firm" basis, whether or not they can or will actually use the full amount reserved, or they are relegated to using capacity on a short-term "firm" or a "non-firm" basis, neither of which are of long enough term to satisfy potential project financers. This produces a disadvantage for wind projects because they are required to reserve transmission rights for the maximum capacity of their project, even though the project is likely to only produce 35-45% of that maximum, based on its capacity factor. The real problem for new wind projects in the West, however, is that all firm transmission capacity rights across most of the major paths of the Western Electricity Coordinating Council (WECC) are already reserved under long-term contracts. This method of reserving transmission capacity means that a large amount of the physical transfer capacity of the lines in these paths goes unused in most hours of the year, even after accounting for capacity reserved to meet stability needs. For example, WECC data shows one particular interface - known as the TOT 3 - to be physically constrained only 18% of the time under current operational practice. As a variable generator having no fuel cost, a wind power project has more flexibility than other generators to make use of transmission service that may be available in certain periods but not in others. Using wind power as an example, RMATS has organized a case study to explore tariff and operational practices that would enable new resources to take advantage of unused physically-available transmission capacity. One of the options that the case study is testing is becoming known as "curtailable firm" transmission service. Curtailable firm would be a long-term product available in all non-peak hours. The RMATS TOT 3 case study is expected to assess whether the curtailable firm tariff is viable in practice. It should also show how much money a transmission owner is likely to gain as a result of more efficient use of the lines. If the results are as positive as expected, the next step will be for regional transmission owners to file such a tariff amendment with the Western Area Power Administration and with the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission. Phase II of the study will look deeper into technical and financial feasibility. Phase III will engage public and private sector decision makers to approve the required investments and approvals. More information is available on the RMATS Web site at: http://psc.state.wy.us/htdocs/subregional/home.htm . According to West Wind Wires' Hamilton, "RMATS has made a lot of progress identifying the geography of wind development in the study region and wind's favorable economics in the West and showing how short-term access to transmission service could be provided with regulatory and operational changes. West Wind Wires is prepared to expand its activities in RMATS Phase II and complete the case for wind's transmission needs in Phase III." For More Information: Rocky Mountain Area Transmission Study Web Site |
©
2004 by the American Wind Energy Association. |
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anyone knows who has looked at a map of the wind energy potential in the
U.S. superimposed with the country's transmission network, there are huge
reserves of wind resource in the upper Midwest and the interior West but a
dearth of transmission capacity to get that potential power out to demand
centers. Individual wind projects cannot bear the financial and planning
burden to build the necessary transmission to get large amounts of power out
of wind-rich areas. In fact, new transmission lines are difficult to plan
and finance in general because regional planning forums have not
traditionally existed and the uncertainty in the power industry that has
accompanied wholesale restructuring has made cost recovery risky.