Orders

ORDER NUMBER

R-35-18

IN THE MATTER OF

the Utilities Commission Act, RSBC 1996, Chapter 473

and

WESCUP

Application for Acceptance of Mitigation Plans (Version 2) required for

Compliance with Mandatory Reliability Standards:

FAC-008-3 Requirement 1 – Violation ID:  BCUC2017000628

FAC-008-3 Requirement 6 – Violation ID:  BCUC2017000629

BEFORE:

W. M. Everett, QC, Commissioner

on October 3, 2018

ORDER

WHEREAS:

A.      On September 20, 2018, the Western Electricity Coordinating Council (WECC), acting as the Administrator for the British Columbia Mandatory Reliability Standards Program (BC MRS Program), issued Recommendations of Mitigation Plan (MP) Acceptance (Recommendations) to bring WESCUP into compliance with the reliability standards identified above;

B.      Section 125.2 of the Utilities Commission Act (UCA) assigns exclusive jurisdiction to the British Columbia Utilities Commission (BCUC) to determine whether a “reliability standard,” as defined in the UCA, is in the public interest and should be adopted in British Columbia;

C.      By Order G-123-09, the BCUC appointed WECC as its Administrator for registration and monitoring compliance pursuant to section 8 of the UCA. The Administration Agreement between WECC and the BCUC was signed on October 8, 2009, and WECC’s role as Administrator for the BC MRS Program was renewed in the first amended Administration Agreement, dated August 21, 2014;

D.      Order G-123-09 also approved the Compliance Monitoring Program (CMP) for monitoring and enforcement of adopted reliability standards and most recent revisions to the CMP were approved by Order R-40-17, dated September 1, 2017;

E.       Pursuant to section 5.1.1 of the CMP, an entity subject to approved Mandatory Reliability Standards found in Confirmed Violation of a reliability standard must prepare an MP to correct the Confirmed Violation or prepare a description of how the Confirmed Violation has been mitigated. Pursuant to section 5.3.2 of the CMP, an MP with respect to a Confirmed Violation must be submitted to the Administrator within ten days following confirmation by the BCUC;

F.       An MP with respect to a Possible Violation or an Alleged Violation may be submitted at any time and the BCUC encourages entities to mitigate all perceived instances of noncompliance upon detection;

G.      On May 24, 2018, WESCUP submitted two MPs to address the Possible Violations FAC‑008‑3 R1 and R6 and WECC rejected these two MPs on July 13, 2018;

H.      On August 22, 2018, WESCUP submitted a second version of each of the two MPs to address the same Possible Violations FAC‑008‑3 R1 and R6 with the proposed completion dates as shown below; and

I.        The BCUC reviewed WECC’s Recommendations and considers that acceptance of the MPs is warranted.

NOW THEREFORE pursuant to section 125.2(10) of the UCA and in accordance with the CMP, the BCUC accepts the MPs with the proposed completion dates as identified above.

DATED at the City of Vancouver, in the Province of British Columbia, this              3rd               day of October 2018.

BY ORDER

Original Signed By:

W. M. Everett, QC

Commissioner