Florida Electric Power Coordinating Group Formed; Utilities Work Together to Lower Power Costs through Economic Dispatch In 1972, the Florida Electric Power
OUC celebrated its Golden Anniversary.
Those close to the negotiations felt that
Coordinating Group, Inc. (FCG) was formed
Curt Stanton’s relationship with Marshall
to promote coordinated facilities, planning
McDonald, the CEO of Florida Power & Light
and transmission studies of all electric utilities
(FPL), was key to the successful establishment
in the state — including those that were
of FCG. Stanton and McDonald had known
investor-owned, as well as rural electric
each other since college. The trust between
cooperatives and municipals. Although it
the two men — one representing the largest
was initially difficult to get an organization
investor-owned utility and the other, the
of competing utilities off the ground, FCG
second largest municipal utility in the
ultimately became a highly successful
state — allowed the parties to put their
endeavor, benefiting all Florida electric
differences aside and work together in the
customers by lowering power costs. This
best interest of Floridians. This was the first
was accomplished through the economic
step toward creating a central economic
dispatch of generating units and the
dispatch where utilities coordinated outages
establishment of power interchange
and had a means of utilizing the most
brokering, which effectively achieved the
economical and efficient units first. It also
objectives of a formal power pool without
enabled OUC to monitor transmission
formal binding contracts.
capacity and plan for growth.
OUC Instrumental in Creating Power-Brokering Software Programs A leader in the region since interconnecting
Going live in February 1979, it ran at 20 minutes
with other utilities in 1960, OUC was involved
before the hour, giving utilities a 40-minute
in a joint study with FCG to look at developing
window to input quotes. The program would
a power-brokering system that would allow
print out a schedule for the next hour, matching
utilities to make decisions on buying and
the needs of the utilities to the available
selling power based on an hourly market. Prior
generation. Washburn said the new system
to the study, all transactions were conducted
met with great response, and Florida utilities
over the phone between utilities, and there
saw an annual savings that ranged from
was no centralized information or level playing
$20 million to $40 million.
field. An FCG study found that conducting more transactions in the State of Florida on
the 1990s when, in the face of deregulation, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission
and implemented a new software system to
OUC Centralizes Water Operation Monitoring and Control
The power-brokering system was used until
an hourly basis would benefit the state. FCG and OUC's Tom Washburn developed
At OUC’s Lake Highland Water Treatment Plant, an operator could control water supply for more than 200,000 people in the Greater Orlando area from one console.
(FERC) mandated that all utilities use the centralized Open Access Same-Time
enable hourly transactions. Called General
Information System (OASIS), an Internet-
Electric Time Sharing, the program utilized a
based system for obtaining services related to
server in Bethesda, Maryland, that was
electric power transmission in North America.
connected to each of the Florida utilities.
Page 26
OUC’s Tom Washburn (left) developed and implemented a software system to enable hourly power-brokering transactions.
In 1974, a new computer-based control center was placed into operation at the Lake Highland Plant. Using the latest computer technology, OUC continued to monitor and control all water plants from this one centralized location. Featuring a console with monitors, the new center enabled a single operator to view the operational status of all OUC plants
and elevated tanks, as well as switches to turn pumps and equipment on and off. New software facilitated monitoring and control functionality, and collected and stored historical data that could be used to prepare reports and analyze the operation of the system. The control center was staffed with an operator 24 hours a day, seven days a week. Page 27