Over the past 6 months, under the auspices of the Western Governors’ Association (WGA) and the California Energy Commission (Energy Commission), the Western Renewable Energy Generation Information System (WREGIS) Operational Rules Committee (ORC) has conducted weekly conference calls to develop draft recommendations that describe the functional requirements and operating rules for a west-wide, electronic renewable energy certificate (REC) verification and tracking system. This process has entailed a significant commitment of time and resources from stakeholders with an interest in the activities within the Western Interconnect. In addition to the direct work of the WREGIS ORC, a WREGIS Data Interface Subcommittee has also worked on the specific issues related to the acquisition of quality data to assist in the verification and tracking of renewable energy throughout the Western Interconnect.

The WREGIS ORC documented its original recommendations in WREGIS Interim Operating Rules: Functional Requirements which was finalized on  May 4, 2004 (see http://www.westgov.org/wieb/wregis/documents.htm) .  During the process of developing these initial recommendations, the ORC identified a number of additional issues that needed resolution (identified as Tier 2 issues in the May document). The ORC continued work in May and June, and has developed draft recommendations on these Tier 2 issues.  The attached document, Draft Final WREGIS Interim Operating Rules:  Functional Requirements (dated 6/15/04) includes the ORC's recommendations on Tier 2 issues.  These include rules to allow the participation of generation units not reportable by control areas (generally, small generation facilities), treatment of multi-fuel generators, rules governing accumulation of sub-MWh quantities, a definitions section, and several other new functionalities and clarifications.

Your comments on the WREGIS DRAFT Final Interim Operating Rules: Functional Requirements are requested.

The WREGIS ORC desires that all stakeholders with an interest in WREGIS review the document and provide written comments on the functional aspects of the system. We ask that you limit your comments to the new sections of the document which are highlighted in yellow.  This draft set of functions and operating rules will form the basis for the development of the systems software and associated functionality.

Unfortunately, timing is very tight, and therefore written comments are requested by no later than Tuesday, June 22nd, and should be sent to Jennifer Martin, the ORC technical staff, at jmartin@....  Please feel free to forward this message on to other organizations that you feel would also have an interest in the outcome of the WREGIS project.

Once comments are received, the ORC will hold one final conference call on June 25th to review and incorporate stakeholder comments as appropriate.  This call is open to any interested participants.  You can find information about how to join the ORC at the bottom of this email message.

We thank you in advance for your comments.  If you have any questions about the ORC process, or WREGIS in general, please consult the WREGIS website (see links below), or contact Jennifer Martin at the Center for Resource Solutions (jmartin@...).

Steven Kelly

Independent Energy Producers Association

WREGIS ORC Chairperson, 

    and

Brock John

Alberta Environment

WREGIS ORC Vice Chairperson