Utility representatives at a customer-led workshop voiced support for Bonneville Power Administration’s shift toward “proactive” transmission planning, though some expressed reservations about the agency’s proposed commercial readiness criteria. 

The Sept. 10 workshop was part of a series of public meetings the agency is hosting as part of its Grid Access Transformation Project (GAT). The agency has paused certain transmission planning processes to consider changes in how it will tackle 65 GW of transmission service requests. 

In July, BPA outlined its proposed plan to address the queue. The agency has developed a two-part approach: a transitional phase to get off the pause and a longer-term “future state” that will include more substantial reforms to BPA’s existing transmission processes. (See BPA Outlines Proposed Transmission Planning Reforms.)  

BPA’s proposed future state, which includes shifting toward proactive transmission planning (an approach that seeks to forecast transmission needs and prepare the system ahead of time rather than just reacting to customer requests), received support from Seattle City Light (SCL) during the Sept. 10 workshop.  

“We want to get to a future state where Bonneville is going through a planning process that’s proactive and not reactive, so that planning process can look ahead 10, 15, 20 years using probabilistic analysis and come to some great outcomes for us as customers,” said Michael Watkins, policy adviser at SCL. 

Watkins also discussed BPA Administrator John Hairston’s goal of reducing the time from transmission request to service to five to six years. (See Industry Sees Challenges as BPA Considers ‘Radical’ Updates to Tx Planning.) 

“If we can get to that point, think about that world for our customers, where our customers can get interim nonfirm service in a short amount of time, whether that’s to make a deal for a new resource, take advantage of a regional importer or exporter deal,” Watkins said. “And then, within five or six years, firm that up, so that our customers can make long-term investments and count on using that transmission to serve load or to reduce their cost for a long period of time.” 

“We support that vision of the future, and while there’s lots of details to work out on how we get there, we think that difficult discussion and working those details out is worth it,” Watkins added. 

BPA is also moving from a business practice process to a tariff proceeding process, or a Section 212 proceeding under the Federal Power Act.  

Chris Jones, director of transmission policy and power delivery at Northwest Requirements Utilities, said he agrees “strongly with the encouragement to continue moving toward the proactive planning element.” 

“To me, that’s the kind of crown jewel, the pot of gold at the end of this rainbow,” Jones added. “And I think what I would encourage BPA is to, as we move into this 212 proceeding, not subordinate that effort to the 212 effort to the extent possible. I would encourage BPA to continue supporting that in parallel.” 

‘Inherently Speculative’

BPA customers participating in the workshop, such as Portland General Electric, also requested that the agency clarify its proposed readiness criteria intended to weed out speculative projects. 

Some of the new proposed updates to planning processes include readiness criteria and a new Network Integration Transmission Service initiative where any new forecast increase of 13 MW or more during any year would require participation in commercial planning. (See BPA Transmission Pause Questioned During Workshop.) 

The Pacific Northwest Renewable Interconnection & Transmission Customer Advocates (PRITCA), a coalition whose members constitute more than 25% of the current BPA interconnection queue, voiced concern over BPA’s commercial readiness criteria. 

“Bonneville Transmission is excellent at what they do, but they’re not a commercial enterprise, and so shouldn’t be picking winners and losers on the basis of these kinds of rather arbitrary standards,” said Eric Christensen, an attorney with Beveridge & Diamond PC, which represents PRITCA. 

Christensen argued that commercial readiness criteria are anticompetitive and that all “projects are inherently speculative,” noting that several things can go wrong during the permitting process, such as financing or issues with the landowner. 

“At the end of this process, we should be promoting generation, market competition,” Christensen said. “That, of course, has been the policy for decades now in the electric utility industry. And the [Open Access Transmission Tariff] platform is a stable platform that should be promoting competition and promoting market liquidity.” 

“The end state that we would like to see, and I think Bonneville’s core customers would like to see, as well, is that there is a broad choice of developers of renewable projects that they can choose from when they have to fill their portfolios,” Christensen said. “And so anything that restricts that artificially impacts market liquidity and makes it more likely that consumers will be harmed.”