The heat of July and Cinergy’s sweaty response to it mean EastCentral Area Reliability Coordination Agreement (ECAR) rules areabout to change to strongly discourage the unauthorized drawing ofpower from the system.

A recent ECAR investigation concluded that Cinergy broke certainECAR and NERC (North American Electric Reliability Council) ruleswhen it drew between 1,500 and 1,700 MW of power it did not own insix to eight different hours during the last week of July. NERCrules say a control area, such as Cinergy, must take all possiblesteps regardless of cost to keep load and generation in balance.ECAR findings say Cinergy did not do that.

Cinergy’s actions seriously diminished the system’s operatingfrequency, and had other factors been in play, blackouts could haveensued, said Brant Eldridge, ECAR executive manager. He said nosanctions are currently in place that would allow for thepunishment of Cinergy, but that’s about to change.

A recently passed ECAR resolution calls for a reprimand letterto be sent to Cinergy CEO Jim Rogers. Additionally, the ECARmembership plans to develop a sanction mechanism — fines andrevocation of control area status — in time for next summer. ECARis advocating that NERC do the same for the whole country. However,Cinergy can’t be punished retroactively.

Cinergy spokeswoman Kathy Meinke acknowledged the power taken bythe company and said the company has since returned to the systemthe megawatts that were taken. “That was done after the fact. Idon’t have specific dates, but we did notify ECAR of that, and theyare aware of that.

“What occurred in July does not reflect how we normally operateor will operate in the future, and we will continue to work withECAR in this changing industry as the industry is moving forward.”

Eldridge said ECAR has not heard from any of the other nine NERCregions regarding the Cinergy matter. “Everyone involved in thereliability end of the business is well aware of what Cinergy did,and they’re now aware of what ECAR did… ECAR reported to the NERCsecurity committee last week. NERC has endorsed the actions ofECAR.”

He said the Cinergy matter brings to light the fact that it’stime to revamp the 1960s vintage ECAR agreement. “I don’t thinkthis specific happening was particularly contemplated, but therehas been discussion in the ECAR forum for the last couple of yearsabout the need to restructure our organization and rewrite thatagreement. We had been holding off doing that in view of all theuncertainty and changes going on at the NERC level and what kind oforganization NERC was going to become.”

Joe Fisher, Houston

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