01-11-2021 BPU RPT 06 - Laserfiche WebLink

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W A T E R E N E R F. V I I F F �~ RIVERSIDE PUBLIC UTILITIES • Board Memorandum PUBLIC UTILITIES BOARD OF PUBLIC UTILITIES DATE: JANUARY 11, 2021 SUBJECT: UPDATE ON THE ROOT CAUSES OF THE AUGUST 2020 CALIFORNIA INDEPENDENT SYSTEM OPERATOR LOAD SHEDDING EVENTS ISSUE: Receive an update on the causes of the August 14 and August 15, 2020 California Independent System Operator ordered load shedding events that impacted multiple California utilities. RECOMMENDATION: That the Board of Public Utilities receive and file this update on the root causes for the August 14 and August 15, 2020 California Independent System Operator ordered load shedding events. BACKGROUND: From August 14 - 19, 2020, the Western United States experienced an extreme heat storm, with temperatures 10-20 degrees above normal. This heat storm was particularly severe in California and compromised an already constrained bulk electric transmission system that was being concurrently threatened by numerous wildfires and the loss of critical generation units. Due to these events, on August 14 and 15, 2020, the California Independent System Operator (CAISO) was forced to declare Stage 3 emergencies and institute rotating electricity outages (i.e., "load shedding") across its Balancing Area (BA). As a participating Load Serving Entity (LSE) within the CAISO BA, Riverside Public Utilities (RPU) is mandated by law to follow all CAISO dispatch instructions, including the shedding of load under any emergency conditions. In response to a Stage 3 emergency declared at 6:38 p.m. on August 14, the CAISO ordered all participating LSE's to shed a total of 1,000 megawatt (MW) across the BA, in proportion to their respective load shares. RPU was specifically ordered to shed 12.7 MW of electrical load at 7:00 p.m. on August 14 for approximately 50 minutes. The CAISO also declared a Stage 3 emergency at 6:28 p.m. on August 15 and subsequently ordered the three largest LSE's to shed a total of 500 MW across the BA. Fortunately, RPU was not instructed to shed any load on August 15. Immediately after these two load shedding events, Governor Newsom declared a State of Emergency due to the ongoing significant heat storm in California. Additionally, on August 17, 2020 the Governor ordered the CAISO, California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC), and California Energy Commission (CEC) to jointly perform a root cause analysis of the factors