FERC on Wednesday accepted an uncontested settlement agreement between SPP and Northwest Iowa Power Cooperative (NIPCO) over the latter’s annual transmission revenue requirement, formula rate template and formula rate implementation protocols as a transmission-owning member of the RTO (ER15-2115).

The commission last year rejected a settlement filed by SPP, saying that, because it was contested, it couldn’t be approved under its guidelines and precedent set by a 1999 case. FERC in February then denied NIPCO’s rehearing request. (See “Co-ops Rebuffed in Settlement Rehearing Requests,” FERC Denies Rehearing in Z2 Remand Order.)

NIPCO had argued that when TOs join regional grids, even indirect modifications to grandfathered agreements can trigger a threshold analysis under the Mobile-Sierra doctrine, which holds that negotiated, fixed-rate contracts are to be presumed just and reasonable under the Federal Power Act and cannot be revised by FERC without a finding that the public interest requires modification.

The commission said the Mobile-Sierra “public interest” presumption applies to an agreement only if the agreement has certain characteristics that justify the presumption.

In its latest order, FERC clarified the framework that would apply if it was required to determine the standard of review in a later challenge to the settlement by a third party or by the commission acting on its own authority.

SPP was given 30 days to file a compliance filing.