Orders

IN THE MATTER OF

the Utilities Commission Act, R.S.B.C. 1996, Chapter 473

and

An Application by British Columbia Hydro and Power Authority

for Acceptance of Mitigation Plans required for

Compliance with Mandatory Reliability Standards

PRC-017-0 Requirement 1 - Violation ID:  BCUC201000010

PRC-017-0 Requirement 2 - Violation ID:  BCUC201100288

BEFORE:               D. M. Morton, Commissioner                                     April 25, 2013

O  R  D  E  R

WHEREAS:

A.      Section 125.2 of the Utilities Commission Act (Act) assigns exclusive jurisdiction to the British Columbia Utilities Commission (Commission) to determine whether a “reliability standard,” as defined in the Act, is in the public interest and should be adopted in British Columbia.  By Order G-123-09, the Commission approved the Compliance Monitoring Program (CMP) for monitoring and enforcement of adopted reliability standards and appointed the Western Electricity Coordinating Council (WECC) as its Administrator for registration and monitoring compliance as per section 8 of the Act;

B.      Commission Order G-67-09 requires entities subject to approved Mandatory Reliability Standards to file mitigation plans outlining how they plan to achieve compliance;

C.      Pursuant to section 5.3 of the CMP, a Mitigation Plan with respect to an Alleged Violation may be submitted at any time, and a Mitigation Plan with respect to a Confirmed Violation must be submitted within ten business days following confirmation by the Commission;

D.      On March 7, 2012, British Columbia Hydro and Power Authority (BC Hydro) submitted a Mitigation Plan to address the alleged violation of Reliability Standard PRC-017-0 R1.  WECC rejected the Mitigation Plan on October 29, 2012;

E.       On December 17, 2012, BC Hydro submitted Mitigation Plans to address the alleged violation of Reliability Standards PRC-017-0 R1 and R2.  The proposed completion date is May 30, 2014 and November 1, 2014 for R1 and R2 respectively;

F.       By letters dated April 18, 2013 and April 19, 2013, WECC recommended acceptance of Mitigation Plans for PRC-017-0 R1 and R2 as shown below:

G.       In the letters noted above, WECC also stated that the duration of both Mitigation Plans is longer than WECC would generally recommend for PRC-017-0 violations of similar scope.  For this reason, WECC recommends, that the Commission should hold BC Hydro to the proposed completion dates as stated;

H.        The Commission has reviewed WECC’s recommendations and considers approval is warranted.

NOW THEREFORE pursuant to section 125.2(10) of the Utilities Commission Act and in accordance with the Compliance Monitoring Program, the British Columbia Utilities Commission accepts Western Electricity Coordinating Council’s recommendation and approves the Mitigation Plans with completion dates as identified above. 

DATED at the City of Vancouver, in the Province of British Columbia, this            25th                   day of April 2013.

                                                                                                                                BY ORDER

                                                                                                                                Original Signed By:

                                                                                                                                D. M. Morton

                                                                                                                                Commissioner