Regulatory Update

Regulatory

March 28, 2012

 

ORECA's Engineering and Operations Committee met at Portland State University (PSU) to learn more about electric vehicles and to tour Electric Avenue near the campus, reported Lisa Logie of ORECA. 

George Beard of PSU detailed the joint pilot project with PGE and the City of Portland.  "There is no other place like this in the world," Beard said of the project.  The lessons learned from the project are detailed in article that was published in Forbes magazine the day before the meeting.  Beard stressed the importance of locating new a transit hub with a variety of tranportation and retail options, the importance of offering different types of technology, and in learning from the experience so that it can be applied to other areas. 

Greg Delwiche, BPA Senior Vice President of Power Supply, previewed a presentation about Bonneville 75th anniversary that gives a nod to the past and explains the importance of electricity to our economy and regional quality of life for the next 75 years. 

The group discussed the recent hard hitting winter storms and discussed the importance of updating our current mutual aid agreements as well as potentially signing new agreements with co-ops and PUDs in Washington state.  The meeting has received wide-spread interest including participation by two Oregon PUDs, which attended the meeting. 

Photo by Ron Dubbs, Emerald PUD.  Roger Kuhlman of Salem Electric leads a tour of Electric Avenue with charging stations for electric vehicles near the Portland State University campus.

Ted Case and other examine the ocean buoy at the Oregon Iron Works.March 25, 2011

ORECA’s Engineering and Operations Committee met March 31 in Portland and brought together co-ops from across the state, as well as, government agency officials and out-of-state vendors. There was great interest in the meeting topics and tour of Oregon Iron Works to see the large ocean buoy before it goes into the water this summer off of Reedsport Wave Project, said Lisa Logie, ORECA staff to the committee.

 "Wave energy seems to have this potential, so we are supporting the wave energy demonstration project… We are keenly interested in learning what this demonstration project can teach us about the performance and operating costs of this resource,” said Kevin Watkins, PNGC’s Vice President of Engineering.

In the legislative arena there are concerns about a bill to charge co-ops for permits and inspections when transmission and distribution systems are in county right-of-ways. “We’re worried about the unintended consequences of this one,” said Ted Case.

Presentations included a legislative update, Oregon OSHA explained the new federal rule on derricks and cranes, a presentation on automated metering, staking systems and GIS products, and the Reedsport Wave project. 

Photo: Ted Case and others examine the large ocean energy buoy being fabricated at the Oregon Iron Works.

 

 

Solar Feed-in Tariff - Pilot Program, November 2009 (ppt)

Net Metering - Net Metering & Interconnection Summary (pdf)

Arc Flash - ORECA comments (pdf)

 

Technical

Hot Wire (pdf)

Presentations