State regulators from the SPP and MISO footprints continue to discuss opportunities to contribute to the RTOs’ transmission planning analysis, Adam McKinnie, chief regulatory economist for the Missouri Public Service Commission, told the Seams Steering Committee on Tuesday.
McKinnie, who also serves as a contact between regulatory staff and the SPP Regional State Committee and Organization of MISO States’ Liaison Committee, said commissioners are interested in whether larger projects could resolve reliability issues along the seams.
“They’re trying to figure out if there’s a role for states to play in encouraging wider solutions, rather than each RTO solving its own reliability problems,” McKinnie said.
SPP and MISO have taken three stabs at interregional projects but have failed to agree on a single solution.
The Liaison Committee, composed of regulators from both footprints, commissioned SPP’s Market Monitoring Unit and MISO’s Independent Market Monitor to analyze seams issues. The MMU produced a report on rate pancaking and unreserved transmission use, while the IMM analyzed joint dispatch. (See MISO, SPP Regulators Nibble Away at Seams Issues.)
The regulators have sought stakeholder feedback to a series of questions on the two studies. McKinnie assured the SSC that the responses are read. “That’s why we tried to provide ‘kitchen-sinky’ questions,” he said.
The Liaison Committee will hold a conference call Jan. 13 to discuss responses to the monitors’ reports. It will also meet Feb. 9 during the National Association of Regulatory Utility Commissioners’ Winter Policy Summit in D.C.
M2M Settlements Reach $68.1M in SPP’s Favor
SPP earned more than $870,000 in market-to-market (M2M) payments from MISO during November, cracking $68 million in favorable settlements since the process began in 2015.
Permanent flowgates were binding for 315 hours and more than $878,000 in SPP’s favor. Temporary flowgates were binding for 813 hours and more than $7,848 in MISO’s favor.
Staff’s Will Ragsdale said two permanent flowgates along the Kansas-Missouri border — “our old friend,” the 161-kV Neosho-Riverton, and the 161-kV Moberly-Overton — accounted for more than $809,000 in M2M settlements to SPP. The Neosho-Riverton flowgate has racked up more than $30 million in settlements, four times the second-most constrained flowgate.
SPP has realized $68.1 million in M2M settlements since the two RTOs began the process of using the RTO with the most economic dispatch to address market flows. Staff are reviewing flowgates in western North Dakota to determine allocated property rights, or firm-flow entitlements, on M2M constraints and also comparing allocated M2M settlements with LMPs in market settlement areas.
Committee Reviews 2019, Preps for 2020
Committee members spent much of the meeting discussing the group’s organizational effectiveness, based on SPP’s annual stakeholder survey results. A suggestion to hold quarterly meetings because of a lack of voting items went nowhere.
Members also reviewed their 2019 accomplishments — including oversight of the MISO-SPP coordinated system plan improvements and study — and major pending issues. The latter includes joint studies with MISO and Associated Electric Cooperative Inc.; identifying the administrative processes that lead to inefficiencies between the SPP and MISO markets; and continued pursuit of coordinated projects to address historical M2M congestion between the RTOs.
Staff are working to set up SPP’s annual issues-review meeting with MISO, tentatively scheduled for March 10.
— Tom Kleckner
