Railbelt Reliability Council moves forward
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Alan Bailey for Petroleum News
The Railbelt Reliability Council, or RRC, is moving forward in establishing its organization, with the intent to apply to the Regulatory Commission of Alaska on Oct. 1 for a certificate to operate as the electric reliability organization for the Alaska Railbelt electrical system, according to a notice published on the RCA website.
The organization has indicated that it is seeking a representative from a large commercial electricity consumer, to fill the remaining open seat on the RRC board of directors. A qualifying organization to fill the vacant seat would need to be among the top 15 energy or peak demand users on the system, or an entity that is recognized as a significant industrial user of Railbelt electricity.
The RRC anticipates bringing a more unified approach to the oversight and management of the Railbelt system by maintaining and mandating reliability standards for the high voltage electrical system; administering rules for open access to the transmission grid; conducting Railbelt-wide system planning; and investigating ways to share costs across the grid and to reduce power generation fuel costs for consumers.
In 2020 the state Legislature passed Senate Bill 123, legislation that enables the RCA to regulate EROs in Alaska. And on June 29 of this year the commission issued regulations for the implementation of SB 123, setting the legal rules under which EROs can be certified and regulated.
A key component of those regulations spells out parameters for ensuring that an ERO board has an appropriate balance of the various stakeholders in the electrical system. The remaining director that the RRC is seeking would represent large commercial stakeholder interests. Other stakeholders presumably encompass non-commercial electricity consumers and electricity suppliers, including the Railbelt electric utilities and independent power producers.
- ALAN BAILEY
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