FERC accepted SPP’s tariff revisions to add an annual transmission revenue requirement for transmission service using existing and future facilities that Upper Missouri Power Cooperative owns and places under the RTO’s functional control.

The commission suspended the revisions for a nominal period, effective Jan. 1, 2026, subject to refund, condition, and the outcome of hearing and settlement judge procedures. It also conditionally granted a 50 basis point adder to Upper Missouri’s base ROE and directed SPP to make a compliance filing within 30 days of the March 30 order (ER26-102).

In SPP’s October 2025 filing, Upper Missouri said it would be able to recover costs for its existing transmission facilities in the grid operator’s footprint through a formula rate, rather than indirectly by leasing its equipment to fellow SPP member Basin Electric Power Cooperative.

Montana-based Upper Missouri is a transmission cooperative and supplies wholesale power to its 11 distribution cooperative member-owners. It argued that although it is not currently eligible for the Federal Power Act’s exemption from public utility regulation, it sells more than 4 million MWh of power annually and has member-owner cooperatives that are not exempt.

FERC said SPP raised issues of material fact, including whether the cooperative had justified its proposed ROE, hypothetical capital structure and construction-work-in-progress placeholder, that were more appropriately addressed in hearing and settlement judge procedures.