Following the Bonneville Power Administration’s pause on certain transmission planning processes, the agency’s customers say it might be time to consider creating a regional transmission organization or imposing stricter requirements to tackle the “exponential growth” of transmission service requests.
BPA heard from several customers and industry stakeholders during a May 6 workshop, including Seattle City Light, NewSun Energy, Portland General Electric (PGE), Northwest & Intermountain Power Producers Coalition (NIPPC), Renewable Northwest, Northwest Requirements Utilities and Western Public Agencies Group.
The agency hosted the workshop after it issued a pause in February to consider new “reforms” in light of “exponential growth” of transmission service requests (TSRs). BPA’s 2025 transmission cluster study includes over 65 GW of TSRs, compared with 5.9 GW in the 2021 study. The requests exceed the total regional load projected for the Pacific Northwest in 2034, according to the agency. (See BPA Halts Some Tx Planning Processes Amid Service Requests.)
After it issued the pause, BPA started soliciting stakeholder comments on how the agency can improve the transmission queue and deliver on its goal to go from transmission customer request to service in five to six years.
To meet that goal, BPA and power entities in the West must explore a range of possible approaches, even some controversial ones like creating an RTO, Michael Watkins, policy adviser at Seattle City Light, said during the workshop.
“Is it time for the West to finally wrap their hands around and accept that maybe we should form a regional transmission organization to bring us all together under one umbrella and actually serve our transmission needs?” Watkins said. “And it might be time to do that, and maybe it’s not, but we should talk about it as part of this process. That’s what we’re suggesting. I know that’s contentious, but I think that ought to be part of the discussion.”
Watkins also said it might be time for the West to consider solutions implemented in the East, like power transfer distribution factor scheduling and compensation change.
Speaking on behalf of NIPPC, Henry Tilghman said he agrees the West should consider an RTO.
“We should also consider moving to a congestion rights or a financial transmission rights model for transmission service,” Tilghman added.
Given BPA’s upcoming decision on whether to join a day-ahead market, “I think considering how we can move to a congestion rights model might be something we want to put into the hopper,” Tilghman said.
Other NIPPC recommendations include identifying reforms that don’t need a tariff change, ensuring interconnection and transmission service requirements are consistent and prioritizing the transition process.
Meanwhile, Laura Green of PGE said the utility supports imposing stricter data exhibit requirements to ensure only feasible TSRs move forward and clear the queue of requests that aren’t ready.
“You need to identify your [point of receipt] and your [point of delivery] and upstream generation resources, which I think we already do today. I think that’s part of the requirements,” Green said. “So it will be interesting to see what additional requirements might be put on customers.”
Jake Stephens, CEO at NewSun Energy, said BPA should think about interim solutions and study “the lower hanging fruit” like already planned upgrades or “simple redirects.”
While BPA’s efforts to address the growth of TSRs are good, the pause has impacted the market and companies that invested in resources in the belief their transmission requests would be studied, Stephens noted.
“Bonneville coming up with an interim way to keep working through that queue, I think is important,” Stephens said. “I think it’s necessary one way or another, because at the end of the day, if everything is studied, the results from all of that are going to be so staggering as to almost be undigestible.”
