Overview of the Grid Clean Power Plan and Tribes October 15, 2015 webinar

What the Grid? To understand the grid we need to first discuss electricity, what makes it unique, and what happens between the time it’s created and when it is consumed.

Electricity is unique from other commodities Is generated and consumed at nearly the same time Storage has been impractical on a broad scale although that’s beginning to change Requires an extensive delivery infrastructure (grid) Maintaining a reliable grid requires a constant balancing between generation (supply) and load (demand)

Main Components of the Electrical Grid

Who regulates use of the grid? Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) – Regulates the transmission and wholesale sale of electricity. Monitors energy markets. North American Electric Reliability Corporation (NERC) – Establishes reliability standards that grid operators must adhere to. Regional Reliability Organizations (RRO) - are the enforcement arm of NERC. They perform periodic audits of grid operators and can levy financial fines for non-compliance.

Who regulates use of the grid? (cont.) Utility commissions and districts regulate privately and publicly owned electricity providers – Utilities Commission – Utility Regulatory Commission – Public Utilities Commission – Public Service Commission (may be civil service oversight body rather than utility regulator) – Public Utility District (tribal, state, or government owned utility, consumer owned and operated, small investor owned) – Publicly owned utilities include cooperative and municipal utilities – Cooperative utilities are owned by the customers they serve (farmers and rural communities)

Balancing Areas in the West

How can I move energy across the Grid? Each Transmission Provider has an Open Access Transmission Tariff (OATT) Anyone wanting to move energy across someone’s transmission system must make a Transmission Service Request (TSR) on the OASIS. FERC regulates all transmission tariffs to assure rates are just and reasonable and that everyone wanting to use the system is treated fairly and equitably. 8

What if I want to connect to the Grid? This is called “Interconnection” and depends on your Generator size. – Less than 20 MW is called Small Generator Interconnection Procedures (SGIP) – Greater than 20 MW is called Large Generator Interconnection Procedures (LGIP) – Load Serving Entity (LSE) Procedures for Net Metering (This assumes that you are not selling to an entity other than your LSE.) Interconnection also depends on your impact on the Network (aka. Grid). You cannot be denied but you will be told what it costs. 9

How can Clean Energy Projects meet demand on the grid? Utility scale projects can replace other outdated generation resources in the wholesale supply chain Community scale projects and small individual customer installations (i.e. roof-top solar) can displace the need for Utility provided resources Many Clean Energy Projects can also provide the host utility with ancillary benefits

What is the role of Tribes Tribes have land that may be valuable for the development of utility scale projects Tribes have load to serve Seek information that will assist you in developing a long range energy plan Leverage your assets to your advantage

Questions?? Allan Austin (602)