Title
Consideration of Addition of Regular FTE to the Utilities Department and Budget Revision 2021-14
Recommended Action
I move that Council add 1 Regular FTE to the Utilities Department. I further move that Council approve Budget Revision 2021-14 as summarized on attachment A and that the attachment be made a part of the minutes of this meeting.
Utilities Manager Recommendation
The Utilities Manager recommends that Council approve the budget revision as requested.
Board, Commission or Committee Recommendation
The Board of Public Utilities recommends that Council approve the budget revision as requested.
Body
The Los Alamos County Department of Public Utilities (LAC) and Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL) are directly affected by the Public Service Company of New Mexico (PNM) joining the California Independent System Operators (CAISO) Energy Imbalance Market (EIM) as a result of our load falling in PNM’s Balancing Area.
What is the EIM?- “The Western Energy Imbalance Market (EIM) was launched by the California ISO in 2014 in partnership with PacifiCorp, to leverage geographic and resource diversity across the western states. The real-time wholesale electricity market has generated gross economic benefits to participants totaling more than $1 billion; enhanced regional efficiency of energy dispatch; supported the reduction of carbon emissions; and given system operators valuable, real-time visibility across the western grid.” https://www.westerneim.com/Documents/WesternEIMFactSheet.pdf https://www.westerneim.com/Pages/About/HowItWorks.aspx
LAC contracted with Utilicast to perform a gap assessment which compares the current state of LAC’s resources, processes and technology (systems and infrastructure) with what would be necessary to operate in the EIM.
Attached is Utilicast completed Gap Assessment. This contract was supported by the Power Pool and was managed by Electric Production staff and two representatives from DOE-LANL. On September 8, 2020 thi...
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