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May 2016

Vol 21, No. 21 Week of May 22, 2016

RCA opens electric reliability docket

Commissioners are concerned about the lack of uniform, enforced standards and potential for cyber attacks on the Railbelt system

ALAN BAILEY

Petroleum News

During a public meeting on May 11 the Regulatory Commission of Alaska formally opened a new docket dealing with reliability standards applied to electricity supplies in Alaska. The docket will primarily focus on the Alaska Railbelt but may also look at other aspects of the state’s electrical systems. The idea of the new docket is to gather information about reliability standards in Alaska and to consider the options that the commission has available to address reliability concerns.

Commission Chair Robert Pickett said that the commission is very worried about the lack of mechanisms for the enforcement of current voluntary electricity reliability standards in the Railbelt, and about the fact that Homer Electric Association, one of the Railbelt utilities, has different standards for spinning reserves than those of the other utilities. The term “spinning reserves” refers to spare generation capacity kept available for immediate use in case an active power generation facility cuts out.

Cybersecurity

In addition, cybersecurity - the question of protecting electricity systems from attacks using digital technology - has become a cause of increasing concern. Recent tests in the U.S. indicate that the isolation of the Alaska electrical grid will not necessarily protect the grid from cyber attacks, Pickett said.

Pickett also commented that, especially since a recent incident involving an electricity substation in the San Francisco area, the physical security of components of the electricity supply system has become a focus of attention.

Commissioner Norman Rokeberg commented that, as a first step, the commission anticipates conducting one-on-one meetings with individual utilities, to open a dialogue and obtain feedback from the utilities on how to proceed. One issue that the commission will need to consider is ensuring that any public testimony does not undermine security efforts by the utilities, while at the same time the commission needs to make sure that it does not infringe open meeting laws. The commission is reviewing what might be needed in terms of regulatory or statutory changes, to enable conversations and the sharing of information to move forward, Rokeberg said.

Grid unification

In a separate docket the utility is continuing to monitor progress by the utilities in addressing the dual questions of unifying the management of the Railbelt electricity transmission grid and potentially establishing a single operating company for the grid. During the commission’s May 11 public meeting Pickett reviewed reports filed in April by some of the Railbelt utilities on voluntary efforts at pooling their resources, as a means of more efficiently using the cheaper power generation assets on the grid.

Pickett announced that he is going to schedule a special public meeting in July to evaluate the voluntary efforts made to date by the utilities in addressing the grid management and operation issues. Following a directive by the state Legislature, the commission investigated the manner in which the grid is managed and operated, and in June 2016 issued a report stating that there would be benefit in grid unification. The commission required the utilities to report periodically on voluntary efforts to this end.






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