By Hudson Sangree

FOLSOM, Calif. — CAISO’s RC West has been shadowing Peak Reliability as the ISO prepares to take over reliability coordinator functions throughout most of the West by the end of this year.

The first phase of the two-month shadow operations — in which RC West employees have been mirroring Peak workers around the clock “in listening mode mainly” — will conclude soon, Tim Beach, RC West’s director of operations, told the organization’s Oversight Committee on Tuesday.

So far, RC West has been included on nearly every call, including an energy emergency alert (EEA) event just a few hours into the process, Beach said. “We’re very happy about that,” he said.

The next phase starts June 1, when RC West and Peak reverse roles. RC West employees will talk to balancing authorities, and Peak will step in “if they don’t like how things are going,” Beach said.

Nancy Traweek, executive director of system operations at CAISO, told the committee that the Western Electricity Coordinating Council had provisionally approved the ISO’s bid to serve as an RC and that the matter is now in NERC’s hands. NERC and WECC plan to observe RC West’s shadow operations in the coming weeks, Traweek said.

Everything is going as planned, she told the committee.

RC West has secured agreements from 39 entities in the Western Interconnection, including Arizona Public Service, PacifiCorp and Seattle City Light. Its footprint stretches from the Canadian border into northern Baja California, and from the Pacific Ocean to the Rocky Mountains.

CAISO, SPP and BC Hydro will take over RC services from Peak Reliability, which last year decided to roll up its operations, on a staggered schedule throughout 2019. (See RC Transition Fraught with Pitfalls, WECC Hears.)

CAISO plans to become the RC for California and Baja California on July 1. BC Hydro will become the RC for most of British Columbia on Sept. 2. CAISO will then take over for many areas outside California on Nov. 1, while SPP will take responsibility for other parts of the West on Dec. 3.

The Oversight Committee had its first in-person meeting in March, when it elected its chair, Michelle Cathcart, vice president of transmission system operations with the Bonneville Power Administration, and vice chair, Steve Cobb, director of transmission and generation operations at Arizona’s Salt River Project. (See CAISO RC Oversight Committee Elects Leaders.)

The committee plans to meet monthly throughout 2019. Its members represent the transmission owners and balancing authorities in RC West.

At Tuesday’s meeting, Cathcart led a discussion about the possibility that WECC might revive its former RC operating committee and play a role in coordinating functions between the West’s three new RCs. The proposal is in an early stage, she said.

The plan didn’t appear to generate much enthusiasm among committee members, Cathcart noted. “I’m not hearing a lot of excitement in this room,” she said.