The Western Load Research Association
(WLRA)
1985
The April 1985 meeting was chaired by Bruce Hutchinson (Utah Power and Light) and hosted by Pacific Gas and Electric in San Francisco. Guests included representatives from Seattle City Light, the City of Tacoma, EPRI, the AEIC Load Research Committee, and a consultant for PG&E. Most of the utility status reports were given using a uniform format as discussed and recommended at the fall meeting in Portland. Utah Power and Light had previously distributed a status report for use by other utilities as an example. Joe Wharton of EPRI presented a progress report on RP 1816-3, Evaluation of Sample Designs for Load Research. Eight formal presentations were made by members on a variety of load and market research projects including topics such as end-use studies, weatherization, a weather station network, energy preference surveys, and an econometric approach to peak load pricing. Marv Giddings (Public Service Company of Colorado) and Sheila Newman (Southern California Edison) were elected as co-chairmen to serve a two-year term of office.
The 1985 Fall meeting was hosted by Public Service Company of Colorado in Denver. In addition to the regular members representing thirteen investor-owned utilities in the Western United States, there were guests from the City of Fort Collins, City of Longmont, EPRI, a consultant for Public Service Company of Colorado, a consultant for Pacific Gas and Electric, and Trans Alta Utilities Corporation (an investor-owned utility located in Calgary, Alberta, Canada). Once again most of the utility status reports were given using a uniform format as discussed and recommended at the 1984 Fall meeting in Portland.
Papers on various aspects of customer and load research were presented by representatives of member utilities and EPRI. Several change of pace topics were included in the agenda such as the "Demming" philosophy for quality improvement, new design concepts for transmission lines, and test results using Sangamo's Data Star solid-state recorders. During the business session the members voted to include Trans Alta Utilities as a member utility making the organization officially international. New matrix formats for summarizing personnel, equipment, sampling methods etc. from the status reports will be worked on by a subcommittee and the results will be presented at the Spring meeting scheduled to be held in Lake Tahoe.
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