The Texas Public Utility Commission last week asked for more information on eight small municipal utilities’ appeal of ERCOT’s definition of transmission operator (TO) (48366).

The PUC directed the State Office of Administrative Hearings to return ERCOT’s order to the commission so that it could solicit feedback from stakeholders in a docket. Given legal briefs and other information, the commission would then be able to dismiss the ruling and open a rulemaking or project.

The Small Public Power Group (SPPG) — composed of utilities for the cities of Bartlett, Bridgeport, Farmersville, Goldsmith, Hearne, Robstown, Sanger and Seymour — is appealing the ERCOT Board of Directors’ 2018 rejection of a proposed change to the Nodal Operating Guide (NOGRR149).

“We will, of course, provide comments on the questions the commission [poses] and look forward to the discussion that follows,” Clark Hill Strasburger’s Tom Anson, legal counsel for SPPG, told RTO Insider.

The NOG requires every transmission or distribution service provider in ERCOT to either register as a TO or designate a representative on its behalf. The TOs communicate with ERCOT during emergency events and the management of load-shed activities, among other responsibilities.

NOGRR149 would have exempted municipal distribution service providers without transmission or generation facilities from having to procure designated TO services from a third-party provider if their annual peak load is less than 25 MW. SPPG developed the revision request in 2015 to settle the noncompliant status of six municipally owned utilities with loads of 9 to 21 MW. Goldsmith and Bartlett joined the proceeding later. The Technical Advisory Committee and its Reliability and Operations Subcommittee also rejected the change. (See “Small Public Power Group’s Appeal Again Meets Defeat,” ERCOT Board of Directors Briefs: April 10, 2018.)

Transmission and distribution operators AEP Texas and Oncor are the only two intervenors.

“When I looked at the docket and who intervened, I was shocked there were only the two intervenors,” PUC Chair DeAnn Walker said during the commission’s open meeting Thursday. “This has been a hard-fought issue at ERCOT where a lot of people put stakes in the ground, and they’re not putting them here, and I don’t understand why.”

“This commission can operate better in a project when we can hear from all the stakeholders and ask them questions,” Commissioner Arthur D’Andrea said during the commission’s debate over how to proceed.

The SPPG says its proposal would conform operating guides to the “existing factual situation.” None of the SPPG members is or ever has been in the ERCOT load-shed table, the group said, and the revision would not “in any way, affect the reliability of the ERCOT system.”

“Several SPPG members are so small, they are physically limited in their ability to comply with the relevant ERCOT requirements,” according to the group’s filing.

ERCOT has asked that the PUC deny the appeal because SPPG “has not demonstrated any legal basis for reversing the [board’s] decision to reject NOGRR149” and because it has not alleged “any credible violation of law.”

Walker said she wanted to ensure the commission was protecting its oversight of ERCOT.

“There are policy decisions made at the ERCOT board we don’t agree with. I believe we still have the authority to set that policy and the obligation to set that policy,” she said. “I don’t want to take away our oversight of those policy decisions.”

Walker Warns SPP Recs Could Raise Tx Costs

Walker briefed D’Andrea and Commissioner Shelly Botkin on the SPP Regional State Committee’s recent discussions and disagreements over the Holistic Integrated Tariff Team’s (HITT) recommendations. The RTO’s Board of Directors approved the 21 recommendations, despite some minor pushback. (See SPP Board Approves HITT’s Recommendation.)

Calling the conversations at the RSC “a whole lot of mess,” Walker said the three recommendations assigned to the committee will affect Texas because of changes to cost-allocation methodologies. The committee has until next July to:

• propose how to decouple two transmission pricing zones under SPP’s Tariff, creating new, larger zones in one, and smaller sub-zones in the other;
• evaluate the byway facility cost-allocation review process; and
• charter a study of the generator injection rate (based on energy produced by resources without network or point-to-point service).

(See “Regulators Approve ‘Wind-Rich’ Report, HITT Recommendations,” SPP Regional State Committee Briefs: July 29 & Aug. 5, 2019.)

“While most of the utilities here [in Texas] support the decoupling, how those zones would [be] set up is important,” said Walker, the lone RSC member to vote against the HITT proposals. “Almost every recommendation I have seen has Texas paying more.”

Noting the HITT study was pushed by utilities in wind-rich areas concerned that their transmission spending was benefiting customers elsewhere, Walker said, “We’re not wind rich. We’re just under wind rich.”

“My concern is we end up at the end of the day with everyone else getting what they wanted and us needing to make a fight at FERC,” she said.

D’Andrea, who sits on Organization of MISO States’ board of directors, said some of the same discussions are being held there. OMS is currently working on long-term transmission planning principles, he said. “That conversation is almost impossible to have without cost allocation,” D’Andrea said.

SPS to Refund $14.5M in Fuel Costs

The PUC signed off on Southwestern Public Service’s request to refund its Texas retail customers $14.5 million for over-collected fuel costs from January 2016 through May 2018. SPS reached a unanimous settlement with commission staff, Texas Industrial Energy Consumers (TIEC) and the Alliance of Xcel Municipalities (AXM) (48718).

SPS has a separate docket before the PUC, in which it has asked permission to replace its two seasonal formulas used to determine its fuel factors with a single formula (49616).

The company said the move is necessary because its new 478-MW Hale Wind Project has changed its resource mix and because SPP’s market has affected its system-average fuel and purchased power costs. The new formula will ensure the wind facility’s benefits are passed on to customers “timely,” SPS said.

TIEC, AXM and the Office of Public Utility Counsel have intervened in the proceeding.

Residential customers will see about a 3.25% increase on their bill from June through September, or about $3.73/month for those using 1,000 kWh/month of electricity, the company said.

Broker Registration Forms OK’d

The commission approved electric broker registration forms to comply with Senate Bill 1497, which requires representatives paid for brokerage services to register with the state (49711).

The bill goes into effect Sept. 1. The PUC will maintain a list of registered brokers on its website.

Thoughts, Prayers for El Paso Victims

Walker opened the meeting by extending thoughts and prayers on behalf of the commission to three El Paso Electric employees who she said had family involved in the city’s deadly Aug. 3 shooting. She said one of the employees lost their mother.

“It’s rocking the entire community,” Walker said.

— Tom Kleckner