Advanced efforts are underway to develop a long-term plan for transmission system upgrades and expansion that will include a public-facing website that shows where transmission service is available, how much it will cost and how to request it, Washington State's Grant County PUD said on Jan. 21.
The website, called a WebOASIS (Open Access Same-time Information System), could go live, pending commission approval, in March. Service costs are based on Grant PUD's wholesale transmission rates and create revenue streams that help keep retail electric rates low.
Users of the WebOASIS could be companies who generate electricity in Grant County -- a solar farm, for example -- that intends to send its generation to a customer outside the county, Susan Manville, Grant PUD's director of the Transmission Strategy and Development team, told PUD commissioners at their Jan. 20 workshop.
Other users could be utilities or energy brokers who want to send electricity to market but need to use Grant PUD’s transmission system to get it there.
Another web-based tool, WebTrans, will compile the processes and procedures for hourly, daily, weekly and monthly transmission-system transactions.
The system will go live as soon as Grant PUD employees are trained to use it, and the utility becomes a federally registered provider of open-access transmission services, Manville said.
The web tools will make it easier and less labor-intensive to track who is requesting transmission service, and when and where they need it, the PUD noted.
