1. Western Electricity Coordinating Council
PC15 High DG
Dan Beckstead
January 19, 2017
Western Electricity Coordinating Council

2. Western Electricity Coordinating Council
Modeling Logic
Production Cost Model
Scope
Key Questions
Assumptions
Increase Renewable Energy WECC Wide
Results
Generation Mix
Path Utilization/Flows
Load served by Renewables
Dump Energyk
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3. Western Electricity Coordinating Council
Scope
Study requesters: CREPC/SPSC/WIRAB, PG&E, Strategen
Case built and compared to version 1.7 of the Common Case Dataset
Increased DER impacts
Western Electricity Coordinating Council

4. Western Electricity Coordinating Council
Objective
1.) How does a High DER future impact the dispatch of the production cost model as compared to the 2026 Common Case Production Cost west-wide energy dispatch, fuel use, and CO2 emissions. 2.) What impacts are there to transmission flows and congestion, including if there are changes to interregional transfers to integrate higher DER, or if there are constraints limiting a change to interregional flows 3.) Does this case result in curtailment (or dump energy)? How much? What generation and locations are being curtailed?
Western Electricity Coordinating Council

5. Western Electricity Coordinating Council
Modeling assumptions
The resources mix for California are based off of the SB 350 study and the resource mix studied by E3. The Majority of the renewables for California came from wind in New Mexico and Wyoming.
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6. Annual Generation by Type
Reduced the thermal units in exchanged for Wind, Solar, DG, and Geothermal.
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7. Annual Energy Change by Type
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8. WECC Annual Generation by Category (MWh)
2026 WECC V1.7
2026 PC15 High DER Case
Difference
Conventional Hydro
240,765,431
240,763,791
(1,640)
Energy Storage
3,056,573
2,823,663
(232,910)
Steam - Coal
185,569,748
182,037,773
(3,531,974)
Steam - Other
2,003,621
1,963,634
(39,987)
Nuclear
39,192,186
38,971,938
(220,248)
Combined Cycle
286,149,951
278,770,173
(7,379,778)
Combustion Turbine
39,538,412
39,154,893
(383,519) IC
1,166,847
1,085,462
(81,384)
Other
DG/DR/EE - Incremental
30,439,596
43,417,066
12,977,471
Biomass RPS
21,438,455
20,908,155
(530,300)
Geothermal
31,370,036
31,124,639
(245,398)
Small Hydro RPS
3,744,125
3,743,477
(648)
Solar
42,378,029
41,597,263
(780,766)
Wind
72,397,285
72,258,386
(138,899)
== Total ==
999,210,294
998,620,313
(589,980)
Other Results
Var. Prod. Cost (M$)
17,838
16,177
(1,661)
CO2 Cost (M$)
2,386
2,346
(40)
CO2 Amount (MMetrTn)
319
313
(6)
Dump Energy (MWh)
385,264
1,356,811
971,546
Pumping (PL+PS) (MWh)
11,993,398
11,692,593
(300,806)
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9. Western Electricity Coordinating Council
Dump Energy
Most Dump Energy
Name
Amount
NorthStar Solar 1
116,087
RpsCA-0954
81,256
Silver State South
72,040
RpsCA-0946
70,960
Queenstown
61,520
ImpValleySolar1-2
57,814
RpsCA-0078
55,725
AguaCalienteSolar
50,272
SwanHillsSagCT
47,283
Centinela Solar Energy Facility (Phase I)
31,405
Western Electricity Coordinating Council

10. Western Electricity Coordinating Council

11. Changes in Path Utilization
75%
90%
99%
P25 PacifiCorp/PG&E 115 kV Interconnection
11.93%
8.48%
6.29%
P45 SDG&E-CFE
10.51%
5.82%
4.01%
P83 Montana Alberta Tie Line
12.13%
5.50%
0.06%
P52 Silver Peak-Control 55 kV
12.90%
5.01%
0.00%
P36 TOT 3
15.56%
2.93%
0.86%
P66 COI
7.27%
2.17%
P26 Northern-Southern California
3.23%
1.37%
0.95%
P26, P66, and P15 are not highly utilized
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12. Change in Path Utilization
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13. Western Electricity Coordinating Council
Path Utilization
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14. Western Electricity Coordinating Council
Path Utilization
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15. Western Electricity Coordinating Council
Results/Findings
WECC path flows were largely unaffected
California exports were largely unaffected despite a large increase in DG
Continued investigation with ABBs input
Dump energy is occurring mainly during spring hours when LMPs are zero
Western Electricity Coordinating Council

16. Dan Beckstead dbeckstead@wecc.biz (801) 819-7656
Contact Info
Dan Beckstead
(801)
Western Electricity Coordinating Council