20070601Application.pdf

Avista Corp.
1411 East Mission PO Box 3727
Spokane. Washington 99220-3727
Telephone [phone]
Toll Free 800-727-9170 ~~~'iI'STA.
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June 1 2007 UT:\.I \ \ -~!.i \i,:3\\
Jean Jewell, Secretary
Idaho Public Utilities Commission
W. 472 Washington Street
Boise, ill 83720
AVU-E --C/7-
Re: Avista Corporation s Application to Implement Load Management Pilot Programs
Dear Ms. Jewell:
Enclosed for filing with the Commission is an original and 7 copies of the following tariff sheets:
Fifth Revision Sheet B
Original Sheet 96
Canceling Fourth Revision Sheet B
The Company proposes to offer residential and commercial demand response programs in
portions of Sandpoint and Moscow for a two-year period. Internet protocol thermostats, direct
control units and related technology will be installed to reduce energy usage at peak times of the
year and gain experience with customer acceptance, program design, operational components
and cost-effectiveness.
The Company requests that the Commission approve the proposed tariff and tariff changes
included in this filing to be effective July 15, 2007.
Enclosed are copies of the existing tariff Schedule Sheet B and tariff Schedule 96 with the
changes, an Application that provides information supporting the proposed tariff, Attachment
to support cost effectiveness, and a notice to customers that will be posted in the Company
offices.
Please direct any questions on this matter to myself at [phone] or Bruce Folsom at (509)
495-8706.
Linda Gervias
Regulatory Analyst
A vista Corporation
linda. gervais(q)avistacorp. com
Enclosures
DAVID J. MEYER
VICE PRESIDENT AND CHIEF COUNSEL OF
REGULATORY AND GOVERNMENTAL AFFAIRS
VISTA CORPORATION
O. BOX 3727
1411 EAST MISSION AVENUE
SPOKANE, WASHINGTON 99220-3727
TELEPHONE: [phone]
FACSIMILE: [phone]
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BEFORE THE IDAHO PUBLIC UTILITIES COMMISSION
IN THE MATTER OF THE APPLICATION
OF A VISTA CORPORATION FOR THE
AUTHORITY TO IMPLEMENT LOAD
MANAGEMENT PILOT PROGRAMS IN
IN THE SANDPOINT AND MOSCOW AREAS
CASE NO. AVU-07-
APPLICATION OF A VISTA CORPORATION
(ELECTRIC)
I. INTRODUCTION
A vista Corporation doing business as A vista Utilities (hereinafter A vista or
Company), at 1411 East Mission Avenue, Spokane, Washington, respectfully requests that
the Commission approve the enclosed proposed Company tariff Schedule 96
, "
Energy Load
Management Programs - Pilot"
The Company proposes to offer residential and commercial demand response
programs in portions of Sandpoint and Moscow for a two-year period. Internet protocol
thermostats, direct control units and related technology will be installed to reduce energy
usage at peak times of the year and gain experience with customer acceptance, program
design, operational components, and cost-effectiveness.
The Company requests that this filing be processed under the Commission s Modified
Procedure rules.
Communications in reference to this Application should be addressed to the following:
David J. Meyer, Esq.
Vice President and Chief Counsel of
Regulatory and Governmental Affairs
A vista Corporation
O. Box 3727
1411 E. Mission Avenue, MSC-
Spokane, W A 99220-3727
Phone: [phone]
Fax: [phone]
Kelly Norwood
Vice President - State and Federal Regulation.
A vista Corporation
O. Box 3727
1411 E. Mission Avenue, MSC- 7
Spokane, W A 99220-3727
Phone: [phone]Fax: [phone]
Application of A vista Corporation
Case No. A VU-07-
Page 1
II. BACKGROUND.
Until recently, the Pacific Northwest has witnessed a low on-peak/off-peak price
differential, averaging less than one cent/kWh. Going forward, however, peak prices are
expected to be significantly higher than average prices. For example, the Company
Integrated Resource Plan (IRP) forecast shows average highest day prices are two to three
times higher ($80 to $IOO/MWh) than average day prices. In addition, the highest prices will
be an additional two to three times the average of those prices (consistent with the $200+
prices experienced during the summer of 2006). Recent events in the summer of 2006 have
emphasized localized cost impacts of the Western regional market. Due to unit outages and
record regional loads, the market price of power on July 24th, 2006 exceeded 20 cents/kWh.
While this is not likely the beginning of an annual occurrence, it remains to be seen whether
this was an anomaly or a five- or ten-year event.
With higher "highest day" prices and with additional volatility likely during peak
events, demand reduction (DR) measures and distributed generation (DG) can mitigate cost
impacts to customers and utilities.
III. PROPOSED PILOT
This pilot will include the installation of approximately 50 smart communicating
(internet protocol) thermostats, approximately 50 direct control units, and, potentially, other
technology such as in-home energy usage display units in parts of Sandpoint and Moscow.
The Company would call a minimum of four "events" during the year to test the technology,
impacts on load and customer acceptance. These events will be performed at times of critical
peak demand periods. Duration of the events will typically be four hours but can be
extended to a six hour time frame depending on power price market conditions. This pilot
Application of A vista Corporation
Case No. A VU-07-
Page 2
includes presentation of information to selected customers through the use of a web portal.
Other customer features will be examined to test customer responsiveness.
The intent of this pilot is to be scalable. Given the multiple technology and program
design options, the pilot program as proposed will assist with determining future deployment.
This project will provide experience with specific technologies to examine cost-effectiveness
and customer acceptance. Technology will be tested for functionality, thereby better defining
system and hardware requirements, and assessing costs/benefits.
Customers who are on Schedules 1 , 11 , and 21 are eligible for participation.
Qualifying participants must be homeowners or business owners occupying the premises for
at least one year on a full-time basis. This will allow a comparison of energy consumption
with previous summer/winter usage. The targeted participants are all electric load.
Customers can have an alternate non-electric back-up heat source (an alternate heat source
will be required if demand response units are to be installed on baseboard electric load).
Participating customers will be assessed no incremental costs. The "incentive" for a
customer to participate is to receive upgraded equipment and the associated features.
Customers opting in for a programmable controllable thermostat (PCT) will receive a
thorough inspection of their HV AC system and a state of the art PCT.Participating
customers with demand response switches will also receive an audit on all equipment
controlled via the switch plus a $10 a month credit for the months of July, August
December, January and February.
This program will examine some of the following directly controllable appliances:
Air - Conditioning
Complete HV AC system (electric heat-pump w/air conditioning)
Water Heater
Pool Pump
Electric Forced Air Heating System
Application of A vista Corporation
Case No. A VU-07-
Page 3
Electric Base Board Heating System
Irrigation pump (if any)
Due to A vista system capacity issues and seasonal spot power prices, air conditioning
load will be given priority in customer selection. However, the Company intends to explore
the effects of demand response on both winter and summer peaks. Therefore, customers with
a HV AC system (for heating and air conditioning) will be given equal priority. Additionally,
in order to gain knowledge and experience with a variety of demand response technologies
the Company will install demand response equipment in the above listed applications.
Pilot milestones are shown in Table 1 , below.
Table 1 - Key Activities
Create direct mailer
Compile database of customers off selected feeders.
Communication begins with target DR group.
Select vendor( s) for equipment installation.
. Order, receive and install demand response equipment.
Gather behavioral data of customers participating in pilot at time of equipment
installation (# living in house, space heat or cool temperature preferences, time at
premise, i., gone during normal work day, etc.
Perform a test callable event.
Perform first real peak callable event (prescheduled).
Perform additional callable event (prescheduled or real time).
Send out/call first customer acceptance survey.
Derive load curves for DR group and control group using data from the Meter Data
Management (MDM) system and the Load Management System (LMS).
Perform minimum of two callable events each year for winter peak (prescheduled or
real time) and analyze.
Perform a minimum of two callable events each year for summer peak (prescheduled
or real time) and analyze.
Pilot end. Send out/call final survey.
Ongoing analysis and evaluation of customer acceptance, technology, impacts to
possible future pricing strategies (Critical Peak Pricing or Time of Use).
Application of A vista Corporation
Case No. A VU-07-
Page 4
IV. PROJECT COST AND COST EFFECTIVENESS REVIEW
The costs of this pilot are anticipated to be approximately $123 000. Based on the
assumed incremental cost of power during callable events of $150 000, this program is
expected to be cost-effective (as shown in Attachment 1). The assumptions, however, are
subject to market conditions in the western United States power grid during peak periods and
the duration of high power costs which, in turn, are influenced by temperature, availability of
generating units, and the cost of fuel for generating units. In any event, however, as a test, at
a relatively low cost, significant benefits will accrue by proceeding with this pilot.
V. MEASUREMENT AND EVALUATION
Measurement & Evaluation (M&E) is integral to defining benefits of a pilot program
and identifying areas for improvement or modification. Avista s M&E will examine four
components: 1) KW savings, 2) technology, 3) customer acceptance, and 4) interactions of
peak demand on the Company s distribution system.
M&E of KW savings:The effects of shifting load during peak times will be
measured using the demand response vendor s Load Management Software (LMS) and the
Company s Meter Data Management system along with load curves derived from Synergee.
(Information gathered from these three measurements will be input into a load-flow program
called Synergee to develop load curves and to identify ways to improve system efficiencies.
Expected savings are 1 KW during summer peak and 2 KW during winter peak per customer.
Results of the Company s sample will be measured against a control group with similar
usage patterns from the same distribution feeder. The impacts of the distinctive climates of
the two study areas (Moscow/Sandpoint) will also be examined.
M&E of Technology:In the course of this pilot, the Company intends to install
demand response units on a variety of large electrical appliances (Air Conditioning, Space
Application of A vista Corporation
Case No. A VU-07-
Page 5
Heat, Water Heaters, Pool Pumps, etc). Observation of the effects these appliances have on
our demand response effort will mold the future of our demand response programs.
Communications technologies will also be tested during the pilot.Lastly the Load
Management Software will be observed for reliability and the accuracy of the data
provides.
M&E of Customer Acceptance:Customers participating in the program will do so by
opting-in. They have the option of opting-out for a single event or out of the entire program.
This customer participation will be tracked.Two surveys are expected to be given to
customers participating in the pilot program. One survey will be given by phone or mail
after the first "real" callable event, and a second survey by phone or mail at the end of the
two year pilot program.
M&E of Peak Demand on Avista s Distribution System:Peak demand affects
Avista s distribution system in several ways. Conductor losses are increased, transformer
losses may be decreased and load imbalance is unpredictable. The pilot will also allow for
an evaluation of the effects of peak demand on the Company s distribution system. 1
1 Avista is currently testing other technology installations in a "living laboratory" mode. For example
the Company is in the process of implementing an advanced metering pilot in Sandpoint, Idaho. This pilot
involved the installation of approximately ten thousand automated meters of two different types. A fIXed radio
frequency (RF) network was installed within Sandpoint proper, and a power line carrier network called TW ACS
was used in the surrounding rural areas of Clark Fork, Oden, Priest River and Old Town. The Company will
have the capability to communicate with the meters via radio frequency or TW ACS to remotely measure
consumption in intervals and manage the data. In the near term, this project will allow collection of needed real
time data on end use load shapes for rate design and provide a platform for pilot demand response projects.
Future benefits of these technologies are outage management, load forecasting, remote connect/disconnect
price responsiveness for demand response, reduction of line losses and theft, as well as improved engineering
planning/design (e.g. transformer sizing).
Engineering plans are being prepared to test feeder improvements in this pilot area. These plans will
inClude the ability to iterate with the pilots described in this Application to aggregate data and further test
synergies with these end-use applications.
Application of A vista Corporation
Case No. A VU-07-
Page 6
VI. REQUEST FOR APPROV AL
Avista, therefore, respectfully requests approval of a new tariff schedule 96 "Energy
Load Management Programs - Pilot."
WHEREFORE Applicant requests the Commission issue its Order finding the
proposed pilot to be appropriate as described to be effective July 15 , 2007.
DATED at Spokane, Washington, this 1st day of June, 2007.
A VISTA CORPORATION
David J. Meyer
Vice President and Chief Counsel of
Regulatory and Governmental Affairs
Application of A vista Corporation
Case No. A VU-07-
Page 7
STATE OF WASHINGTON)
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David J. Meyer, being duly sworn, on oath deposes and says:
That he is the Vice President and Chief Counsel of Regulatory and Governmental Affairs of
A vista Corporation;
That he has read the foregoing Application, knows the contents thereof, and believes the
same to be true.
f?/
David J. Meyer
Subscribed and sworn to before me this I st day of June, 2007.
Notary Public in and for the State
Washington, residing in Spokane
Application of A vista Corporation
Case No. A VU-07-
I.P.C. No .Original Sheet 96
AVISTA CORPORATION
d/b/a Avista Utilities
SCHEDULE 96
ENERGY LOAD MANAGEMENT PROGRAMS - PILOT
PURPOSE:
To provide residential and commercial demand response programs for a two-
year period. Internet protocol thermostats, direct control units and related technology
may be installed to test reduction in energy usage at peak times of the year.
AVAILABLE
To Rate Schedule 1, 11 , and 21 Customers in the State of Idaho where the
Company provides electric service in selected areas of Sand point and Moscow.
APPLICABLE
To all customers receiving electric service who agree to participate under this
schedule.
INCENTIVE
Participating customers with demand response switches will receive an audit on
all equipment controlled via the switch plus a $10 a month credit for the months of July,
August, December, January and February.
SPECIAL TERMS AND CONDITIONS
Qualifying participants must be homeowners or business owners occupying the
premises for at least one year on a full-time basis.
Customers can have an alternate non-electric back-up heat source (an alternate
heat source will be required if demand response units are to be installed on baseboard
electric load).
Participating customers will have no incremental costs.
This program will provide load use controls for some of the following appliances:
Air - Conditioning
Complete HVAC system (electric heat-pump w/air conditioning)
Water Heater
Pool Pump
Electric Forced Air Heating System
Electric Base Board Heating System
Irrigation pump (if any)
Customers may apply for or terminate from this schedule anytime during the
pilot.
Issued June 1 , 2007 Effective July 15, 2007
Issued by Avista Corporation
By Kelly Norwood , Vice President State and Federal Regulation
I.P.C. No. 28
Fifth Revision Sheet B-
Canceling
+J:W:G Fourth Revision Sheet B-
AVISTA CORPORATION
dba Avista Utilities
Schedule
No.
INDEX PAGE - IDAHO - continued
Title of Sheet
Sheet
No.
Miscellaneous Schedules
Line Extension, Conversion , and Relocation Schedule - Idaho...............
Temporary Service....................................................................................
Line Extension And Conversion Schedule for
Local Improvement Districts - Idaho ...................................................... 54
Tax Adjustment Schedule - Idaho ............................................................ 58
Residential And Farm Energy Rate Adjustment - Idaho ..........................
Cogeneration And Small Power Production Schedule - Idaho ................ 62
Net Metering Option..................................................................................
Temporary Rate Adjustment - Idaho....................................... ........
Temporary Power Cost Adjustment - Idaho ............................................. 66
Energy Efficiency Service for New Residential Buildings - Idaho............ 67
Idaho Rules And Regulations ...................................................................
Electric Energy Efficiency Programs - Idaho............................................ 90
Energy Efficiency Rider Adjustment - Idaho............................................. 91
All Customer Electric Energy Buy-Back Program ........................,........... 92
Optional Renewable Power Rate - Idaho ................................................ 95
Enemy Load Manaqement Proqram - Pilot............................................. 96
Issued June 16, 2006
June 1 , 2007
Effective August 10, 2006
July 15, 2007
Issued by Avista Utilities
By Kelly Norwood Vice President, State & Federal Regulation
I.P.C. No. 28
Fifth Revision Sheet B-
Canceling
+ffiFG Fourth Revision Sheet B-
AVISTA CORPORATION
dba Avista Utilities
Schedule
No.
INDEX PAGE - IDAHO - continued
Title of Sheet
Sheet
No.
Miscellaneous Schedules
Line Extension, Conversion, and Relocation Schedule - Idaho............... 51
Temporary Service....................................................................................
Line Extension And Conversion Schedule for
Local Improvement Districts - Idaho...................................................... 54
Tax Adjustment Schedule - Idaho ............................................................ 58
Residential And Farm Energy Rate Adjustment - Idaho ..........................
Cogeneration And Small Power Production Schedule - Idaho ................
Net Metering Option..................................................................................
Temporary Rate Adjustment - Idaho....................................... ........ 65
Temporary Power Cost Adjustment - Idaho ............................................. 66
Energy Efficiency Service for New Residential Buildings - Idaho............ 67
Idaho Rules And Regulations................................................................... 70
Electric Energy Efficiency Programs -Idaho............................................ 90
Energy Efficiency Rider Adjustment -Idaho............................................. 91
All Customer Electric Energy Buy-Back Program .................................... 92
Optional Renewable Power Rate - Idaho ................................................ 95
Enerqy Load Manaqement Proqram - Pilot............................................. 96
Issued Juno 16, 2006
June 1 , 2007
Effective August 10, 2006
July 15, 2007
Issued by Avista Utilities
By Kelly Norwood Vice President, State & Federal Regulation
Attachment 1
Load Control Pilot
PSTs (thermostats)
PST trim rings
Installation of PSTs + HVAC evaluation
DCUs
Installation of DCUs + HVAC eval
LMS hosting, pagin & support set-up
LMS monthly fee
LMS training & set-up
5 FTE program manager - loaded
25 student employees
Ads, surveys and customer communication
Energy efficient washer wi sales tax
Energy efficient dryer wi sales tax
Monthly participation incentive (Jan, Feb, Jul, Aug, Dec)
Estimated cost of the pilot
Number of callable events - summer per 2 yr pilot
Number of callable events - winter per 2 yr pilot
Hours per event
kw savings per summer event
kw savings per winter event
Total savings per 2 yr pilot
Strike price
Economic benefit of load control
Net Benefit
Quantity Unit Cost Total
217.$ 10 854.
162.
80.000.
100.000.
150.500.
500.
997.898.
200.
000.
000.
000.
813.627.
813.627.
500 000.
$ 154 370.
400 200 kW per pilot
400 600 kW per pilot
800
200.
160 000.
629.
AVISTA CORPORATION
DBA A VISTA UTILITIES
NOTICE OF TARIFF CHANGE
(Electric Service Only)
---- ------ -- ----- -------
Notice is hereby given that the "Sheet" listed below of TariffIPUC No. 28, covering electric
service, has been filed with the Idaho Public Utilities Commission in Boise, Idaho:
Fifth Revision Sheet B
Original Sheet 96
Canceling Fourth Revision Sheet B
The purpose of this filing is to offer residential and commercial demand response
programs in portions of Sandpoint and Moscow for a two-year period. Internet protocol
thermostats, direct control units and related technology will be installed to reduce energy
usage at peak times of the year and gain experience with customer acceptance, program
design, operational components, and cost-effectiveness.
Copies of the proposed tariff changes are available for inspection in the Company s offices
and on the Company web site at www.avistautilities.com/prices/rates.
Issue Date:
Keep Posted Until:
June 1 2007
July 15, 2007