By Tom Kleckner
SPP has ensured it will be one of the key players in the Western Interconnection through at least 2020, having agreed to administer a FERC tariff that mitigates congestion on transmission lines through controllable devices.
The RTO announced Tuesday it began administering the Western Interconnection Unscheduled Flow Mitigation Plan (WIUFMP), effective Aug. 20, for six qualified owners and operators (QOO): CAISO, NorthWestern Energy, NV Energy, PacifiCorp, Tri-State Generation and Transmission Association and Western Area Power Administration.
SPP COO Carl Monroe said he is proud the QOOs recognized the RTO’s “experience and expertise” in reliability, grid management and “complex settlements processes.” The mitigation plan “comes at an exciting time as we’re looking for opportunities to bring SPP’s customer-focused business model to the west,” he said.
SPP has been working to add the Mountain West Transmission Group to its membership rolls since early 2017 and is also competing with CAISO to provide reliability coordination in the Western Interconnection. (See WAPA Formally Requests SPP’s RC Services.)
The WIUFMP defines ways to compensate QOOs for using phase-shifting transformers to manage loop flows in the Western Interconnection. The transformers change the effective resistance of an electric circuit or component to alternating current, such that collectively “the path of least resistance” is modified and certain loaded transmission facilities are relieved of real-time congestion.
Under the tariff, device owners are compensated for the availability and use of their equipment in managing grid congestion along qualified paths. As the plan’s administrator, SPP will collect fees from applicable entities — organizations that generate power, serve load and buy, sell or transport energy in the West — and make payments to device owners.
SPP said it anticipates it will distribute $3 million in the first year of its oversight. It will also collect, analyze and publicly report data on device usage and other aspects of the WIUFMP’s execution.
The Western Electricity Coordinating Council (WECC) had previously administered the mitigation plan, which has been under a FERC-approved tariff since March 2016 (ER16-193). WECC announced in late 2016 it would stop administering the WIUFMP, saying the function no longer fit with its responsibilities as a NERC regional entity.
SPP said it has not “specifically functioned” as a plan administrator for congestion mitigation but has previously performed reliability, settlements and other functions on contract for non-members.
“SPP is always interested in pursuing growth,” SPP spokesman Derek Wingfield told RTO Insider. “Everything we’re doing as the WIUFMP administrator leverages tools, staff, processes and expertise we already have in place. We consider there to be value in any opportunity like this one to use existing assets to bring value to new customers. Our hope is that they receive unparalleled service, we gain experience from the opportunity, and everyone benefits.”
Wingfield said SPP will charge an administrative fee “as allowed by the plan” and accrue other benefits as it does with its other contract services.
“Sometimes we benefit through learning, sometimes by opportunities to offset fixed costs, and sometimes we get to forge or strengthen relationships that may lead toward full SPP membership,” he said.
SPP has already formed a Qualified Owners and Operators stakeholder group, chaired by Tri-State Senior Manager of Transmission Systems Operations Keith Carman. CAISO’s Larry Bellnap, manager of balancing authority operations, is the group’s vice chair.
An Unscheduled Flow Committee, which supports the WIUFMP under SPP’s administration, reports to the QOO.
The QOO began meeting in late 2017, following WECC’s decision to end its role. The group selected SPP following a solicitation in November 2017.
SPP’s initial term as WIUFMP administrator will last through Dec. 31, 2020. It will automatically renew in successive one-year terms unless the QOOs choose another administrator.
