After successful efforts to reduce speculation from the public power utility’s power “queue” -- or waiting list for connection -- Grant PUD’s Large Power Solutions group is working to reconcile transmission capacity, in collaboration with the PUD’s Transmission Planning group, after "cleansing" the queue, the Washington State PUD said on Feb. 17.
The queue cleansing effort reduced the amount of requested power on the large power waiting list from 2,191 megawatts to a still substantial but much lower 692 megawatts, PUD commissioners heard Feb. 17.
They achieved that by increasing the fee needed to remain on the waiting list, prompting customers and prospective customers to “right-size” their requests.
The result left 43% of requests unchanged, cancelled 17% of requests, resized 20% of the requests and eliminated 20% of requests through either lack of payment or response.
The team is now looking at calculating how much power is available today, as well as how much will be available to new requests after the current round of electric system upgrades, known collectively as the “Quincy Transmission Expansion Plan (QTEP)," are complete in 2029.
Plans include developing a “growth reservation pilot project” to help customers secure capacity that really need it, allow Grant PUD to get the most out of the system, ensure costs are recovered and costs are not shifted from one group to another.
Under the pilot, industrials who aren’t using their full allocation of power could either pay to keep it in reserve or surrender it, so it could more immediately be put to use for other customers.
This information will become part of a longer-range transmission-capacity plan to track the status of remaining power applicants and coordinate future system expansion plans across the county.
Grant PUD General Manager and CEO John Mertlich told commissioners that all utilities are facing challenges of queue management and efficient energy planning.
