20230112PAC to Staff 19-3.pdf

PAC-E-22-13 / Rocky Mountain Power
December 22, 2022
IPUC Data Request 26

IPUC Data Request 26

In Response to Production Request No. 8, the Company indicates that the value of
energy fluctuates in response to several market conditions. Please provide an
explanation of how the Company tracks the fluctuation of these values and
provide the workpapers detailing the valuation of the different grid management
functions with all formulas intact and enabled.

Response to IPUC Data Request 26

Real-time operations’ monitors reserve holdings and locational marginal prices
(LMP) on a continuous basis. Operators use the energy management system
(EMS) and Pi Historian to monitor total reserve holdings to determine sufficiency
meeting reserve obligations as a member of the Western Power Pool Reserve
(WPP) Sharing Group. Operators monitor individual resources for performance
and demand response (DR) programs holding reserves using the EMS, Pi
Historian, and the Yukon application which administers the CoolKeeper program.
Additionally, real-time operations’ monitors LMP for energy using SettleCore
software and California Independent System Operator (CAISO) applications.

The Company’s current process for DR valuation generally work as follows:

Contingency Reserves - to count as contingency reserve, resources must respond
within 10 minutes following a loss of generation or transmission. These events
typically last less than 60 minutes. The Company has a number of different load
control resources that could be deployed and depending on the magnitude of the
need and contractual details related to the frequency and duration of events,
system operators will deploy one or more resources when an event occurs. On a
forecast basis, the Company’s Integrated Resource Plan (IRP) production cost
modeling tool, PLEXOS, reports the marginal cost of holding contingency
reserves on an hourly basis, and the results from the IRP preferred portfolio are
used for DR program analysis.

Frequency Response – to count as frequency response, resources must respond
within seconds to a dip in the frequency of the Western Interconnect. The
Company currently has automated processes which deploy the Coolkeeper Air
Conditioning Control program in response to frequency events. These events
typically last less than 10 minutes. When they are enabled for frequency response,
all available frequency responsive resources respond automatically to frequency
events. The PLEXOS model is not configured to account for frequency response
requirements, which overlap with spinning reserves.

Energy, peak load reduction, and other grid services - when DR is available
and not being held ready for one of the short-notice reserve products above, it can
be deployed to provide energy value, which may occur during peak load periods.
PAC-E-22-13 / Rocky Mountain Power
December 22, 2022
IPUC Data Request 26

To the extent the Company has DR available to call on, it can avoid market
purchases or not start-up thermal resources that might be needed to cover peak
load hours. The PLEXOS model reports the marginal energy cost by location, and
results from the IRP preferred portfolio are used for DR program analysis.

Please refer to Confidential Attachment IPUC 26 which provides the work paper
detailing the Company’s valuation of the grid management functions.

Confidential information is provided subject to protection under IDAPA
31.01.01.067 and 31.01.01.233, the Idaho Public Utilities Commission’s Rules of
Procedure No. 67 – Information Exempt from Public Review.

Recordholder: Peter Schaffer

Sponsor: Clay Monroe