By Tom Kleckner
The Western Area Power Administration said Wednesday it has submitted a formal request to SPP for reliability coordinator (RC) services on behalf of its Upper Great Plains West and Western Area Colorado Missouri balancing authorities.
WAPA said the two BAs are considering taking SPP’s RC services in early 2020, contingent on the RTO gaining certification and meeting other conditions. The BAs encompass WAPA’s Pick-Sloan Missouri Basin Program in the Western Interconnection, Loveland Area Projects and part of its Colorado River Storage Project Management Center territory.
“We are excited about this opportunity and look forward to more detailed negotiations with SPP,” WAPA CEO Mark Gabriel said in an announcement.
SPP said the request was the first of what it hopes will be many since it announced June 5 that it intends to provide RC services in the Western Interconnection by late 2019. (See Westward Ho: SPP Plans to Become RC in West.)
The RTO said it has received 28 letters of intent from utilities expressing interest in the service but noted that WAPA’s letter was special.
“Our agreement with WAPA is distinct in that it’s the first — of many, we anticipate — to go a step further and commit to the preparation of an actual service agreement,” COO Carl Monroe said in an emailed statement to RTO Insider.
Monroe said the letters of intent “have established partnerships in which SPP will assist each of them in evaluations of the costs and benefits of our provision of reliability coordination service.”
Peak Reliability current provides WAPA’s RC services, but the agency said in February it had sent withdrawal notices to Peak, effective Sept. 2, 2019. WAPA is considering both SPP and CAISO, which also plans to become an RC. The Alberta Electric System Operator already provides reliability coordination in the West.
The Western Electricity Coordinating Council has asked its BAs and transmission operators to confirm which RC they will be using by Sept. 4.
“We continue to engage with neighboring utilities and Mountain West Transmission Group participants on the future of energy markets and RC services in the West,” Gabriel said.
A WAPA spokesperson said the agency has asked SPP to submit a proposal for terms and conditions under which its BAs would receive RC services.
WAPA is one of four power marketing administrations within the Department of Energy. It encompasses a 15-state region of the central and western U.S. and has a 17,000-mile system that carries electricity from 56 federal hydropower plants.
