SANTA FE, N.M. — SPP’s Board of Directors last week approved a transmission plan that will result in an estimated $545 million in projects over the next six years.

The 2020 SPP Transmission Expansion Plan (STEP) report, a comprehensive list of transmission projects in the RTO’s footprint over a 20-year horizon, lists 78 primarily substation upgrade projects as being approved for construction. Another 16 notifications-to-construct, valued at a projected $88.7 million, were withdrawn.

Newly appointed COO Lanny Nickell said during the board’s Jan. 28 meeting that the STEP represents the least amount of transmission investment since 2008. It includes two 345-kV projects that will be competitively bid through SPP’s transmission owner selection process: a $77 million, 60-mile line near Tulsa, Okla., and a $152 million, 105-mile line and terminal equipment in Kansas and Missouri.

The RTO has already issued a request for proposals for the Oklahoma project and expects a board decision in October. The latter project terminates in Associated Electric Cooperative Inc.’s service territory and will require a cost-and-usage agreement to first be filed at FERC.

SPP member companies last year completed 39 system upgrades in eight states at an estimated cost of $190.4 million, the report said.

The expansion plan was approved as part of a consent agenda that included a number of mostly minor revisions to SPP’s bylaws, one of which codified the board chair’s role as chair of the Strategic Planning Committee.

The package also included a revision request (RR389) that provides a testing exception for derated generating units that were out of service or derated because of a forced outage during the preceding peak season, allowing them to satisfy an operational test requirement after repairs are complete.

WEIS Tariff Approved, on to FERC

Directors approved a standalone Tariff and related governance documents for the Western Energy Imbalance Service (WEIS) market, scheduled to begin operations on Feb. 1, 2021.

The approval clears the way for SPP to file the Tariff for FERC’s approval, along with a Western joint dispatch agreement (WJDA) and a charter for the Western Markets Executive Committee. The WJDA is the contractual arrangement between SPP and WEIS participants that governs the RTO’s obligations to administer the market and its compensation for running the market.

Members Committee representatives from Dogwood Energy, Evergy, Nebraska Public Power District, Oklahoma Gas & Electric, Oklahoma Municipal Power Authority, Public Service Company of Oklahoma and Southwest Public Service abstained from their advisory vote over concerns that members did not have enough transparency into the market’s development.

Board Chair Larry Altenbaumer sought to assuage members’ concerns that Western activities were being kept from them.

“We want to ensure that we are very robust in our communications with the members and are transparent in terms of our process,” he said. “We’re committed to making sure everyone is well informed.”

The WEIS Tariff is based on the Energy Imbalance Service market SPP operated in the Eastern Interconnection from 2007 to 2014. It will provide guidance for customers to become participants, convey how they will communicate with the RTO, and outline how the market will be settled and billed.

Seven Western Interconnection utilities have signed up to participate in the five-minute, real-time balancing market, which will be offered as a contract service. (See SPP Board OKs $9.5M to Build Western EIS Market.)

SPP’s Market Monitoring Unit will provide market oversight. In a memo filed with the board’s meeting materials, MMU Executive Director Keith Collins said the Monitor “fully supports” the WEIS and the expansion of electricity markets, but he also listed his concerns over market liquidity, settlements and market power.

Collins said the proposed Tariff language does not address the “potential negative” effect on the market when minimum load requirements are not met, and he noted that SPP is not currently working on protocol language to address the MMU’s market-liquidity concerns.

The MMU has begun a study to determine what mitigation measures may be necessary to ensure market efficiency in the WEIS, Collins wrote.

Brown Delivers Optimistic Final Report

Outgoing CEO Nick Brown joked he had prepared a two-hour sermon for his last report to the board but put it off until his final appearance before the board during April’s round of governance meetings.

“Now is not about the past. I’m tremendously excited about the position this company is in,” Brown said. He listed the addition of new directors bringing “fresh perspective and fresh passion and fresh accountability to our governance” and SPP’s incoming leaders as having successfully placed the organization to take on future challenges.

Brown said the RTO is “firmly, firmly positioned” to implement the Holistic Integrated Tariff Team’s recommendations and to develop a new strategic plan.

“Our current plan is nearing four years in age,” he said. “I think it’s going to be a tremendous time for me to observe all of the efforts this organization is going to undertake over the next year. I leave this meeting with a full heart about the position SPP is in to move forward. I look forward to April and your opportunity to listen to my two-hour sermon.”

Oversight Committee Chair Joshua Martin III reported that SPP once again received an “unqualified opinion” following its latest system and organization controls 1 audit, its 10th such opinion in a row.

Danly Re-nomination Could be Months Away

Patrick Clarey, FERC’s liaison to SPP and MISO, said that James Danly’s nomination to the commission will likely be sent back to the Senate within the next couple of months.

Danly, FERC’s general counsel, was nominated last year to fill the vacancy left by Kevin McIntyre’s death. However, the Senate failed to act on his nomination before the session ended last year. According to Senate rules, the White House must once again send Danly’s nomination to Capitol Hill during a regular session.

Since then, Commissioner Bernard McNamee said he would not seek another term when his current term expires June 30, though he said he would not leave until a replacement is confirmed to his seat. (See McNamee Declines to Seek Reappointment.)

Google Loving RTOs

Jeff Riles, Google Energy’s global energy policy and markets lead, said during a presentation to members that his mammoth company “loves” RTOs and ISOs. Google, already SPP’s largest corporate buyer with 1,135 MW of purchase power agreements, only joined SPP last year. (See Google Searches, Finds Membership in SPP.)

“Quite honestly, we wish they were in every corner of the country,” he said. “There are critical policy questions in front of you, but we think power markets are absolutely essential to achieve our corporate objectives.”

— Tom Kleckner