Pacific Gas & Electric (PCG)

2.2.    Availability

        ISO grid reliability is a function of the Availability of Transmission Facilities owned and operated by its PTO's. The key to the effectiveness of the ISO Maintenance Standards is the establishment of a consistent measure of Transmission Facility Availability (Availability Measures) and the initial setting of the Availability Measure Targets as well as periodic revisions of those targets. By measuring Availability the ISO is able to monitor the effectiveness of Maintenance. While the ISO is concerned with grid reliability, reliability is a function of a complex set of variables including the accessibility of alternative load paths, speed and sophistication of protective equipment, and the Availability of Transmission Line Circuits, and therefore is indirectly related to Maintenance. Thus, Availability will be the principal determinant of each PTO's performance under the ISO Maintenance Standards.

        When using Availability as a gauge of Maintenance adequacy, several things must be kept in mind to avoid misinterpreting performance. The most important consideration is that across the ISO grid, the vast majority of all Forced Outages^(IMS) are due to random/chance events that cannot be controlled by Maintenance. It is important to recognize that only a small percentage of all Forced Outages^(IMS) can be controlled through Maintenance (i.e. activities that do not change the basic configuration of Transmission Facilities). This principle assumes the PTO is performing a reasonable level of Maintenance consistent with Good Utility Practice. If an unreasonably low level of Maintenance is performed for a sufficient period of time, Availability will decline. However, if a level of Maintenance is being performed, consistent with Good Utility Practice, increasing Maintenance activities by a

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significant order will not result in a corresponding increase in Availability. Thus, while Maintenance is important to ensuring Availability, drastic increases in Maintenance will not lead to substantial improvements in Transmission Facility Availability and associated grid reliability.

        A variety of techniques can be used to monitor performance, however techniques that do not account for random variations in processes have severe limitations in that they may yield inconsistent and/or erroneous assessments of performance. To account for random/chance variations while enabling monitoring for shifts and trends in performance, control charts have been widely accepted as an effective means for monitoring performance. Control charts are statistically-based graphs which illustrate both an expected range of performance for a particular process based on historical data, and discrete measures of recent performance. The relative positions of these discrete measures of recent performance and their relationship to the expected range of performance are used to gauge the adequacy of performance. Availability is affected by several factors only one of which is Maintenance. In fact, for most Transmission Line Circuits only a small fraction of Forced Outages^(IMS) can be attributed to phenomenon that could be controlled or avoided through Maintenance. Many more Forced Outages^(IMS) are attributable to random/chance events than Maintenance-related items. Therefore, while monitoring Availability as a gauge of Maintenance adequacy is useful for evaluating long term trends, care must be taken to avoid reading too much into the correlation of Availability to Maintenance since so many additional variables also impact Availability.

        The fundamental performance measures selected as the basis for developing an Availability performance monitoring system are the annual accumulated duration and frequency of certain types of Outages for each Transmission Line Circuit under the ISO's Operational Control. To enhance the Availability performance monitoring system's use as a gauge of Maintenance adequacy, it was necessary to exclude certain Outage^(IMS) types from the determination of the performance measures. Those excluded Outages are:

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Scheduled Outages;



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Outages caused by events originating outside the PTO's system; and



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Outages demonstrated to have been caused by earthquakes.

        Additionally, the Forced Outage^(IMS) duration has been capped at 72 hours so that excessively long Forced Outages^(IMS) do not skew the data as to detract from the meaningfulness and interpretation of the control charts for accumulated Forced Outage^(IMS) duration. This is not to say that an excessively long Forced Outage^(IMS) is not a concern. Rather, such Forced Outages^(IMS) should be investigated to assess the reasons for their extended duration.

        The performance monitoring system requires use of separate control charts for each Voltage Class and PTO. Existing Forced Outage^(IMS) data contains significant differences in the Availability performance between Voltage Classes and between PTOs. These differences may be attributable to factors such as the uniqueness of operating environments, Transmission Facility designs, and PTO operating policies. However, regardless of the cause of the differences, review of the Forced Outage^(IMS) data makes it eminently apparent that the performance differences are such that no single set of control chart parameters for a particular Voltage Class could be applied to all PTOs.

        Three types of control charts will be constructed to provide a complete representation of historical Availability performance, and to provide a benchmark against which future performance can be gauged. The three types of control charts for each PTO and Voltage Class are:

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The annual average Forced Outage^(IMS) frequency for all Transmission Line Circuits;



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The annual average accumulated Forced Outage^(IMS) duration for those Transmission Line Circuits which experience Forced Outages^(IMS); and

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The annual proportion of Transmission Line Circuits that experienced no Forced Outages^(IMS).

        These three control charts will assist the ISO and PTO's in assessing the performance of Voltage Classes over time. To accommodate this process on a cumulative basis data are made available to the ISO by each PTO at the beginning of a new year to assess the performance of the past years.