The Public Utility Commission of Texas last week formally approved Rayburn Country Electric Cooperative’s request to move 96 MW, or about 12% of its load, and associated transmission facilities from SPP into the ERCOT system. The commission set an integration date of Jan. 1, 2020, during its March 13 open meeting (Docket 48400).
At the same time, the PUC denied Rayburn and Lone Star Transmission’s request to transfer ownership of a 10-mile, 138-kV transmission line and associated rights from Rayburn to Lone Star.
The PUC put off a final decision during its Feb. 7 open meeting. (See “PUC Puts off Final Decision on Rayburn Country,” Texas Public Utility Commission Briefs: Feb. 7, 2019.)
Rayburn owns and operates 367 miles of transmission lines in Texas, 207 miles of which are in ERCOT. The cooperative will integrate 130 miles of 138-kV lines into ERCOT, with a remaining 30-mile 138-kV circuit staying in SPP.
The co-op late last year reached an unopposed settlement with commission staff, Oncor and Texas Industrial Energy Consumers that approved the transfer. The agreement also denied the Lone Star purchase of the transmission line.
Southwestern Electric Power Co. has served Rayburn’s SPP load through a power supply agreement with the co-op since the 1990s. The contract with SWEPCO will terminate at the end of 2019.
ERCOT has estimated it will cost $31.7 million to integrate Rayburn’s load with the other 88% (approximately 710 MW in 2017) that is already part of the grid operator’s system. Rayburn will make annual hold-harmless payments of $4.5 million for five years to ERCOT wholesale transmission customers through a wholesale transmission service credit rider.
PUC to Intervene in FERC Dockets
Following an executive session, the commission agreed to intervene in four FERC dockets:
ER19-1124 and ER19-1125, both related to MISO’s Tariff modifications expanding, modifying and clarifying the identification and cost allocation of transmission facilities providing regional and local economic benefits within the RTO’s footprint.
ER19-1156, which adds to MISO’s Tariff a cost allocation methodology for the RTO’s share of certain interregional economic projects with PJM or SPP.
The Louisiana Public Service Commission’s complaint against Entergy and its operating companies that alleges the company’s joint account sales of energy to third-party power marketers and other nonmembers of the Entergy System Agreement from Entergy Arkansas’ Grand Gulf Retained Share violated the agreement (EL19-50).
— Tom Kleckner
