Orders

ORDER NUMBER

R-3-20

IN THE MATTER OF

the Utilities Commission Act, RSBC 1996, Chapter 473

and

British Columbia Hydro and Power Authority

Application for Acceptance of a Mitigation Plan required for

Compliance with Mandatory Reliability Standard:

COM-001-3 Requirement 10 – Violation ID:  BCUC2019000686

BEFORE:

W. M. Everett, QC, Commissioner

on March 27, 2020

ORDER

WHEREAS:

A.      On February 21, 2020, the Western Electricity Coordinating Council (WECC), acting as the Administrator for the British Columbia Mandatory Reliability Standards Program (BC MRS Program), issued a Recommendation of Mitigation Plan (MP) Acceptance (Recommendation) to bring British Columbia Hydro and Power Authority (BC Hydro) into compliance with the reliability standard identified above;

B.      Section 125.2 of the Utilities Commission Act (UCA) assigns exclusive jurisdiction to the British Columbia Utilities Commission (BCUC) to determine whether a “reliability standard,” as defined in the UCA, is in the public interest and should be adopted in British Columbia;

C.      By Order G-123-09, the BCUC appointed WECC as its Administrator for registration and monitoring compliance pursuant to section 8 of the UCA. The Administration Agreement between WECC and the BCUC was signed on October 8, 2009, and WECC’s role as Administrator for the BC MRS Program was renewed in the first amended Administration Agreement, dated August 21, 2014;

D.      Order G-123-09 also approved the Compliance Monitoring Program (CMP) for monitoring and enforcement of adopted reliability standards and most recent revisions to the CMP were approved by Order R-40-17, dated September 1, 2017;

E.       Pursuant to section 5.1.1 of the CMP, an entity subject to approved Mandatory Reliability Standards found in Confirmed Violation of a reliability standard must prepare an MP to correct the Confirmed Violation or prepare a description of how the Confirmed Violation has been mitigated. Pursuant to section 5.3.2 of the CMP, an MP with respect to a Confirmed Violation must be submitted to the Administrator within ten days following confirmation by the BCUC;

F.       An MP with respect to a Possible Violation or an Alleged Violation may be submitted at any time, and the BCUC encourages entities to mitigate all perceived instances of noncompliance upon detection;

G.     On September 15, 2019, BC Hydro submitted an MP to address the self-reported Possible Violation COM-001‑3 R10 with the proposed completion date of September 30, 2019, as shown below;

H.      On December 19, 2019, BC Hydro also submitted an Attestation of Mitigation Plan Completion for this MP and on February 21, 2020, WECC verified BC Hydro’s completion of this MP with an Actual Completion date of October 29, 2019; and

I.        The BCUC reviewed WECC’s Recommendation and considers that acceptance of the MP for COM-001-3 R10 is warranted.

NOW THEREFORE pursuant to section 125.2(10) of the UCA and in accordance with the CMP, the BCUC accepts the MP with the proposed completion date as identified in recital G above.

DATED at the City of Vancouver, in the Province of British Columbia, this               27^th                day of March 2020.

BY ORDER

Original signed by:

W. M. Everett, QC

Commissioner