[Federal Register Volume 64, Number 65 (Tuesday, April 6, 1999)]
[Notices]
[Pages 16730-16732]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 99-8422]


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DEPARTMENT OF ENERGY

Federal Energy Regulatory Commission
[Docket No. EL99-46-000]


Capacity Benefit Margin in Computing Available Transmission 
Capacity; Notice of Technical Conference and Potential Broadcast of 
Technical Conference and Request for Comments

March 31, 1999.
AGENCY: Federal Energy Regulatory Commission.

ACTION: Notice of Technical Conference and Potential Broadcast of 
Technical Conference and Request for Comments.

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SUMMARY: The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (Commission) notifies 
interested persons that the Commission Staff will convene a technical 
conference at the Commission regarding Capacity Benefit Margin on May 
20 and 21, 1999, commencing at 10:00 A.M. each day. The Commission 
Staff invites any interested person wishing to speak at the technical 
conference to submit a request to make a statement. The Commission 
Staff also invites interested persons to submit written comments. At a 
later date, the Secretary will issue a further notice listing the 
speakers, panels and subjects for the technical conference.

DATES: Requests to speak at the technical conference must be filed with 
the Office of the Secretary, Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, 888 
First Street, NE, Washington, DC 20426 on or before Monday, April 19, 
1999.

    Written comments must be received by 5:00 P.M., Friday, April 23, 
1999.
    Persons interested in receiving the Capitol Connection's live 
internet, telephone or satellite coverage of the technical conference 
for a fee must notify Shirley Al-Jarani or Julia Morelli at the Capitol 
Connection (703-993-3100) or contact them at Capitol Connection's 
website (www.capitolconnection.gmu.edu) by May 7, 1999. Persons 
interested in National Narrowcast Network's Hearing-On-The-Line service 
coverage of the technical conference live by telephone should call 202-
966-2211 for further details.
    The technical conference will be held on May 20 and 21, 1999, 
commencing at 10:00 A.M. each day.

ADDRESSES: The technical conference will be held at the Federal Energy 
Regulatory Commission, 888 First Street, NE, Washington, DC 20426.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT:

Charles Faust (Technical Issues), Office of Electric Power Regulation, 
888 First Street, NE, Washington, DC 20426, 202-208-0564.
      
Andre Goodson (Legal Issues), Office of the General Counsel, 888 First 
Street, NE, Washington, DC 20426, 202-208-2167.

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: In addition to publishing the full text of 
this document in the Federal Register, the Commission also provides all 
interested persons an opportunity to inspect or copy the contents of 
this document during normal business hours in the Public Reference Room 
at 888 First Street, N.E., Room 2A, Washington, DC 20426.
    The Commission Issuance Posting System (CIPS) provides access to 
the texts of formal documents issued by the Commission. CIPS can be 
accessed via Internet through FERC's Home Page (http://www.ferc.fed.us) 
using the CIPS link or the Energy Information Online icon. The full 
text of this document will be available on CIPS in ASCII and 
WordPerfect 6.1 format. CIPS is also available through the Commission's 
electronic bulletin board service at no charge to the user and may be 
access using a personal computer with a modem by dialing 202-208-1397, 
if dialing locally, or 1-800-856-3920, if dialing long distance. To 
access CIPS, set your communications software to 19200, 14400, 12000, 
9600, 7200, 4800, 2400, or 1200 bps, full duplex, no parity, 8 data 
bits and 1 stop bit. User assistance is available at 202-208-2474 or by 
E-mail to [email protected].
    This document is also available through the Commission's Records 
and Information Management System (RIMS), an electronic storage and 
retrieval system of documents submitted to and issued by the Commission 
after November 16, 1981. Documents from November 1995 to the present 
can be viewed and printed. RIMS is available in the Public Reference 
Room or remotely via Internet through FERC's Homepage using the RIMS 
link or the Energy Information Online icon. User assistance is 
available at 202-208-2222, or by E-mail to [email protected].
    Finally, the complete text on diskette in WordPerfect format may be 
purchased from the Commission's copy contractor, RVJ International, 
Inc. RVJ International, Inc., is located in the Public Reference Room 
at 888 First Street, NE, Washington, DC 20426.
    The Commission has directed the Commission Staff to convene a 
technical conference to be held on Thursday, May 20, 1999, and Friday, 
May 21, 1999, at the offices of the Federal Energy Regulatory 
Commission, 888 First Street, NE, Washington, DC 20426. The technical 
conference will commence at 10:00 a.m. each day and will be open to all 
interested persons. The technical conference will address Capacity 
Benefit Margin. The Commission Staff has attached to this notice a list 
of suggested subjects for discussion at the technical conference.
    Persons wishing to speak at the technical conference must submit a 
request to make a statement in Docket No. EL99-46-000. This request 
should clearly specify that it concerns the Capacity Benefit Margin 
technical conference and must specify the name of the person desiring 
to speak and the party or parties the speaker represents. Persons with 
common interests or views are requested to file a joint request for 
participation, so that the Commission can accommodate the maximum 
number of participants. Requests must also include a brief synopsis of 
the issue or issues the speaker wishes to address as well as the 
speaker's position on the issue or issues. All requests must be filed 
with the Office of the Secretary, Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, 
888 First Street, NE, Washington, DC 20426 on or before Monday, April 
19, 1999.
    The number of persons desiring to speak at the conference may 
exceed the time allotted. Therefore, based on the

[[Page 16731]]

requests to participate, the Commission Staff will put together panels 
of speakers representing a broad spectrum of interests and views for 
each panel. At a later date, the Secretary will issue a further notice 
listing the speakers, panels and subjects for the technical conference.
    In addition, interested persons are invited to submit written 
comments addressing topics to be discussed at the technical conference.
    To facilitate review of the comments, commenters should provide a 
one page executive summary of their comments. The comments should be no 
longer than 25 pages in length, double spaced, on 8\1/2\'' x 11'' 
paper, with standard margins.
    The original and 14 copies of such comments must be received before 
5:00 p.m., Friday, April 23, 1999. Comments should be submitted to the 
Office of the Secretary, Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, 888 
First Street, NE, Washington, DC 20426 and should refer to Docket No. 
EL99-46-000.
    In addition to filing paper copies, the Commission encourages the 
filing of comments either on computer diskette or via Internet E-Mail. 
Comments may be filed in the following formats: WordPerfect 6.1 or 
lower version, MS Word Office 97 or lower version, or ASCII format.
    For diskette filing, include the following information on the 
diskette label: Docket No. EL99-46-000; the name of the filing entity; 
the software and version used to create the file; and the name and 
telephone number of a contact person.
    For Internet E-Mail submittal, comments should be submitted to 
``[email protected]'' in the following format. On the subject 
line, specify Docket No. EL99-46-000. In the body of the E-Mail 
message, include the name of the filing entity; the software and 
version used to create the file, and the name and telephone number of 
the contact person. Attach the comment to the E-Mail in one of the 
formats specified above. The Commission will send an automatic 
acknowledgement to the sender's E-Mail address upon receipt. Questions 
on electronic filing should be directed to Brooks Carter at 202-501-
8145, E-Mail address [email protected].
    Commenters should take note that, until the Commission amends its 
rules and regulations, the paper copy of the filing remains the 
official copy of the document submitted. Therefore, any discrepancies 
between the paper filing and the electronic filing or the diskette will 
be resolved by reference to the paper filing.
    All comments will be placed in the Commission's public files and 
will be available for inspection in the Commission's Public Reference 
Room at 888 First Street, NE, Washington, DC 20426, during normal 
business hours. Additionally, comments can be viewed and printed 
remotely via the Internet through FERC's Homepage using the RIMS link 
or the Energy Information Online icon. User assistance is available at 
202-208-2222, or by E-mail to [email protected].
    If there is sufficient interest, the Capitol Connection may offer 
the conference live for a fee over the Internet as well as via 
telephone and satellite. Persons interested in receiving the Capitol 
Connection's live internet, phone bridge or satellite coverage for a 
fee, please call Shirley Al-Jarani or Julia Morelli at the Capitol 
Connection (703-993-3100) or contact them at Capitol Connection's 
website (www.capitolconnection.gmu.edu) by May 7, 1999. In addition, 
National Narrowcast Network's Hearing-On-The-Line service covers all 
FERC meetings live by telephone so that interested persons can listen 
at their desks, from their homes, or from any phone, without special 
equipment. Billing is based on time on-line. Call 202-966-2211 for 
further details.

    By direction of the Commission. Commissioner Bailey did not 
participate in this decision.
David P. Boergers,
Secretary.

What is CBM?

    NERC's June 1996 publication, Available Transfer Capability 
Definitions and Determination (page 14), states:

    Capacity Benefit Margin (CBM) is that amount of transmission 
transfer capability reserved by load serving entities to ensure 
access to generation from interconnected systems to meet generation 
reliability requirements. Reservation of CBM by a load serving 
entity allows that entity to reduce its installed generating 
capacity below that which may otherwise have been necessary without 
interconnections to meet its generation reliability requirements.

    It adds that if ``a load-serving entity maintains policies and 
procedures to reserve transfer capability for generation reliability 
purposes,'' CBM should be subtracted from Total Transmission Capacity 
(TTC) in computing Available Transmission Capacity (ATC).\1\ It neither 
prescribes a specific methodology for computing CBM, nor dictates that 
a CBM adjustment of any amount be computed. Rather, the computations of 
ATC set forth in the publication create a placeholder for those 
utilities that elect to make a CBM adjustment. It appears that 
utilities have different views on what CBM is and how it is computed. 
Also, the decision as to whether and how to make a CBM adjustment 
appears to reside in the transmission provider's' merchant function, 
and it is not clear how decisions about CBM are made within the 
confines of the Commission's unbundling requirements.
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    \1\ The publication defines TTC as the amount of electric power 
that can be transferred over the interconnected transmission network 
in a reliable manner so as to ensure (1) that existing facilities 
will be operated within normal ratings and limits; (2) the electric 
systems are capable of absorbing dynamic power swings and remaining 
stable following a disturbance that results in the loss of a single 
system element; and (3) after contingencies and before operator-
intervention, facility loadings do not exceed emergency limits and 
ratings. (pages 6-9) It notes that TTC may also be reduced to 
reflect a Transmission Reliability Margin which is defined as the 
transmission capability necessary to ensure that the interconnected 
transmission network is secure under a reasonable range of 
uncertainties in system conditions, including (1) the fact that the 
assumptions used to model TTC may need to be more conservative in 
the long term because less is known about the system parameters 
(e.g., transactions, loads, generators) over extended periods and 
(2) the fact that actual operating conditions (e.g., generator 
dispatch, parallel flows, and maintenance outages) may differ from 
those reflected in the model. (pages 13-14)
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Who is Allowed to use Transmission Capacity set Aside as CBM?

    It appears that for many transmission providers transmission 
capacity set aside as CBM is not made available for firm transmission 
uses. However, some transmission providers do use CBM for their own 
firm uses, and some appear to make CBM available for the firm imports 
of any load-serving entity in the control area. There also appears to 
be some variation as to how CBM is made available for nonfirm open 
access offerings. Some utilities appear to make it available only 
during system emergencies, others appear to use CBM to meet the nonfirm 
uses of the transmission provider, while others appear to treat it as 
nonfirm ATC under their open access tariffs.

Is CBM an Economic Issue and, if so, is the Right Person Making the 
Economic Decision?

    While CBM is often labeled a reliability issue, it is generally 
supported on the ground that it reduces the cost of maintaining 
generation reliability when compared to other alternatives that could 
be used to maintain generation reliability. In circumstances when there 
are multiple ways to maintain generation reliability that impact 
transmission access differently (e.g., install generation

[[Page 16732]]

locally, purchase transmission to reach remote generating resources, or 
reduce firm ATC on the assumption that neighbors will help out during 
generation contingencies), the person making the choice may not be the 
same person, or the only person, that is affected by the economics of 
the decision.

Are There Considerations Other Than Reliability and Economics that 
Impact CBM Issues?

    In Pennsylvania-New Jersey-Maryland Interconnection, 81 FERC para. 
61,257 at 62,276-77 (1998), the Commission expressed the possibility 
that changes in CBM practices might raise transition issues. For 
example, in the short run, reliability could be affected if CBM 
practices are changed without providing time for those relying on it to 
make other arrangements. Equities may also be a consideration when the 
past economic decisions of transmission providers to use CBM were 
reasonable in the historical context.
    The cost of transmission capacity which may be set aside for CBM is 
rolled into the basic transmission charge and apportioned pro rata 
among all transmission users. The differing CBM practices of utilities 
may support differing rate treatments.

[FR Doc. 99-8422 Filed 4-5-99; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 6717-01-M