Solutions in Action
Customer Success Stories
Success Story
Automated Settlement Solution
for Western Power Pool’s Resource Adequacy Program
Western Power Pool (WPP) is a non-profit membership organization formed by utilities, generators and energy managers to create increased grid efficiency and reliability through collaboration and coordination. Central to WPP’s mission is sustaining energy reliability across its region by coordinating resource sharing across its 22+ member utilities.
When WPP needed a first-of-its-kind solution to automate and manage complex settlements for shared resource pooling, it turned to Sage Utility Solutions for help. With deep expertise in energy management and resourcing, Sage understood the business problem WPP needed to solve. Sage led the development of the automated settlement solution through its strategic partner, Codibly Spyrosoft, a leader in software development for energy organizations.
A Forward-Looking, Collaborative Approach to Ensuring Energy Resource Adequacy
The Western US faces a real risk of regional energy shortages as customers use more energy despite transmission and supply constraints. WPP’s innovative Western Resource Adequacy Program (WRAP) is designed to ensure capacity will always meet customer demand in the West.
The WRAP provides a coordinated approach for assessing and addressing resource adequacy across the region. With visibility across participants, the WRAP paints an accurate, regional picture of resource needs and supply. The collaborative approach to solving capacity challenges takes advantage of operating efficiencies, diversity, and pooled resource sharing.
The WRAP provides a coordinated approach for assessing and addressing resource adequacy across the region. With visibility across participants, the WRAP paints an accurate, regional picture of resource needs and supply. The collaborative approach to solving capacity challenges takes advantage of operating efficiencies, diversity, and pooled resource sharing.
"Our mission is to foster cooperation among utilities in the West," said Ryan Roy, Western Power Pool Chief Operating Officer. "Working together enables the entire region to improve reliability during peak energy days."
Automating the Settlements Process
On any given operating day, a utility with deficit capacity that can’t be satisfied by their own supply and contracts can secure power from other utilities in the West through the WRAP pool of surplus resources. Settlement prices are established by WRAP through complex logic that factors in market conditions, timing, how many participants participated in the program during a capacity shortfall event, and more. A critical component of WRAP is settling transactions between utilities and creating transparency into final pricing and exchange details.
“We needed a solution that could handle complex calculations in as automated a way as possible," commented Ryan Roy. "Sage understood the settlements process, pricing logic, and communications requirements. Their team quickly developed a prototype that was ready to scale to our production system.”
Sage led the development of a modern, cloud-based solution to manage the WRAP settlement process. Working with its development partner, Codibly Spyrosoft, WPP received a one-of-a-kind scalable, efficient, and automated solution that meets the specific needs of the WRAP Program.
Highlights of the system include:
The settlements solution supports transactions between 22+ member utilities spread across 12 states.
WRAP Participants
- Arizona Public Service
- Avista
- Bonneville Power Administration
- Chelan County PUD
- Clatskanie PUD
- Eugene Water & Electric Board
- Grant PUD
- Idaho Power
- Northwestern Energy
- NV Energy
- PacifiCorp
- Portland General Electric
- Public Service Company of New Mexico
- Puget Sound Energy
- Salt River Project
- Seattle City Light
- Snohomish PUD
- Tacoma Power