Public Power Underground - Programs and Markets w/ Lea Fisher - November 28, 2022

special celebrity guest star Lea Fisher brings a market expert perspective to our discussion of WRAP, market evolution, and reliability assessments; plus i close it out with news of my own

Lea Fisher, Ahlmahz Negash, PhD, Dan Catchpole, and Paul Dockery cover electric utility and electric-utility-adjacent news in Season 5, Episode 3.

06:43 - introduce Ahlmahz Negash, PhD as new co-host for Public Power Underground

Ahlmahz has been a recurring guest on Public Power Underground and even accepted the designation of a Special Correspondent during earlier seasons. She has a PhD in Electrical Engineering from the University of Washington, was recently the Chair of the Pacific Northwest Utility Conference Committee’s System Planning Committee, is a recipient of PNUCC’s “Albert Einstein Award”, and is currently on sabbatical from Tacoma Public Utilities where she is a Senior Power Analyst. [I forgot to do an adequate introduction during the recording because I figured y’all knew Ahlmahz, but then I realized I shouldn’t take knowledge for granted and am hopeful y’all will look here.]

09:30 - a lot going on with WRAP
- BPA’s draft close out letter and workshop materials
- coverage of draft closeout letter by Steve Ernst in Clearing Up
- Dan Catchpole’s coverage in Clearing Up on deficiency letter from FERC
- Comments filed by the Power Pool acknowledging BPA’s unique statutory obligations (WRAP22 0011 - Edmonds/Western Power Pool)

27:20 - tensions/tradeoffs of the incremental approach to markets
- coverage of Markets+ two-day, in-person development session by Tom Kleckner in RTO Insider
- presentation from workshop on implementation cost of Markets+ (slide 14)
- an earlier presentation on RTO West implementation costs

43:35 - reliability assessment: Not Great
- coverage of NERC’s 2022-2023 Winter Reliability Assessment by Rory Sweeney in Clearing Up
- North American electric grid faces ‘unprecedented’ widespread risk this winter: NERC by Robert Walton in Utility Dive
- NERC’s announcement with links to full assessment and infographic

54:08 - Short to Ground; where we TL;DR our way through the rest of the news
- Decade-Long Effort to Remove Klamath Dams Gets Final OK by KC Mehaffey in Clearing Up
- FERC, States Hash Out Independent Transmission Monitor Concept by Jason Fordney in California Energy Markets
- Boardman to Hemingway Power Line Approved by Oregon EFSC by Greg Mason in Clearing Up
- Study: Coal Facility Closures Could Increase Available Western Water by Linda Dailey Paulson in California Energy Markets
- BPA Rate Cases Kick Off; Settlement Calls for Keeping Rates Flat by Steve Ernst in Clearing Up
- Diablo Canyon Selected for $1.1-Billion Federal Boost by Jim DiPeso in California Energy Markets
- Heat-Wave Power Sellers Argue Their High Prices Were Justified by Jason Fordney in Clearing Up
- Spot Market Power
- La Nina
- NOAA Climate Forecasts
- WY2023 Water Supply Forecast

1:04:22 - Paul shares some personal news

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