Andy Meyers Bonneville Power Administration Merchant Alert Protocol Market Interface Committee March 2015 Salt Lake City, UT

2 Purpose & Use o “Load-Serving Entities and Purchasing-Selling Entities (Merchants) can use this protocol to exchange information regarding issues that could impact the reliable operation of the Bulk Electric System” o “Approved uses of MAP are for Alerts related to primary communication (phone) and e-Tagging system outages, or when there is a concern that an entity may not have sufficient resources to meet its obligations.” Merchant Alert Protocol (MAP)

3 Steps by PSE to implementing MAP 1. Determines that a Merchant Alert is necessary. o a. Merchant notifies host BA of intent to issue a Merchant Alert before proceeding. 2. Accesses the wesTTrans OASIS bulletin board: o a. Selects the “Add Bid/Offer/Alert” button on the OASIS bulletin board. Selects the “Alert” button. o b. Merchant enters the following required information into the template:  i. Contact information (name)  ii. Point of receipt/point of delivery (POR/POD) — although this information would not be necessary for outages of primary communication or e-Tagging systems, a POR/POD is required for the Alert to be submitted  iii. Start/End date and time (required fields)  iv. Optional comments, if any, but do not include either a price or quantity when initiating an Alert for the purpose of procuring energy to avoid or remedy an energy or capacity emergency  v. Reference Number (optional) Merchant Alert Protocol (MAP)

4 Functions in OASIS software o A unique visual and audible alarm to all currently logged-in wesTTrans OASIS users. Alarm settings must be configured in wesTTrans to receive alarms. o Currently, an with the subject heading “Merchant Alert” is sent to all mailboxes that are linked to the WECCNet messaging system. The body of the will contain all information from the template. o Direct s will be sent to merchants who have requested to be provided this form of communication. o WECCNet messaging system forwards Merchant Alert from wesTTrans OASIS to the ALL WECC group Merchant Alert Protocol (MAP)

5 WECC Net messaging is being retired Peak RC has been developing Reliability Messaging Tool (RMT) o Likely to begin parallel operations of WECC Net & RMT during May/June of 2015 Merchant Alert Protocol (MAP)

6 What is the Problem? o Retirement of WECC Net breaks part of the MAP  There will no longer be the exploder mechanism to distribute the MAP message posted on the OASIS bulletin board broadly to non-OASIS users  MAP messages would only be seen by those OASIS users logged into OASIS monitoring the bulletin board and who have configured wesTTrans to receive alarms Merchant Alert Protocol (MAP)

7 Peak RMT does contain an interface that would allow for distribution of MAP messages posted to the bulletin board In order to get RMT & WesTTrans talking to pass MAP messages it will require code changes Peak does not have a contract with OATI to request the development Merchant Alert Protocol (MAP)

8 Where do we go next? o If left unchanged, MAP becomes a far less useful tool with the impending retirement of WECC Net o Efforts are underway ensure that the MAP process continues to function similar to today.  Presentation will be made presenting the problem at May Westtrans user group.  Likely seeking a change order to get the systems to share the MAP messages…costs remains undetermined Merchant Alert Protocol (MAP)

Questions? Andy Meyers – Bonneville Power Administration