Orders

ORDER NUMBER

R-30-21

IN THE MATTER OF

the Utilities Commission Act, RSBC 1996, Chapter 473

and

British Columbia Hydro and Power Authority

Application for Acceptance of a Mitigation Plan (Version 2) required for

Compliance with Mandatory Reliability Standard:

FAC-003-4 Requirement 4 – Violation ID:  BCUC2020000727

BEFORE:

W. M. Everett, QC, Commissioner

on November 18, 2021

ORDER

WHEREAS:

A.      On June 13, 2021, the Western Electricity Coordinating Council (WECC), acting as the Administrator for the British Columbia Mandatory Reliability Standards Program (BC MRS Program), issued a Recommendation of Mitigation Plan (MP) Acceptance (Recommendation) to bring British Columbia Hydro and Power Authority (BC Hydro) into compliance with the reliability standard 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. WECC’s role as Administrator for the BC MRS Program is pursuant to the Administration Agreement between WECC and the BCUC signed on October 8, 2009, and renewed on July 5, 2019;

D.      Order G-123-09 also approved the Compliance Monitoring Program (CMP) for monitoring and enforcement of adopted reliability standards and the 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 August 31, 2020, BC Hydro submitted MP (Version 1) to address Possible Violation FAC-003-4 R4 and, on April 6, 2021, WECC requested BC Hydro submit a revised MP;

H.      On June 11, 2021, BC Hydro submitted a revised MP (Version 2) to address the Possible Violation FAC-003-4 R4 with the proposed completion date of May 28, 2020, indicating that BC Hydro did not submit the MP until after it considered the MP to have been completed, as shown below;

I.         On June 11, 2021, BC Hydro also submitted an Attestation of Mitigation Plan Completion for this MP, which is subject to a separate review process; and

J.        The BCUC reviewed WECC’s Recommendation and considers that acceptance of the MP (Version 2) for
FAC-003-4 R4 is warranted.

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

DATED at the City of Vancouver, in the Province of British Columbia, this             18^th          day of November 2021.

BY ORDER

Original signed by:

W. M. Everett, QC

Commissioner