SPP staff told the Seams Steering Committee on Wednesday that MISO is pursuing a number of transmission projects to help it escape from under a settlement agreement that governs the connection between its two regions.
MISO said in July that it is evaluating nine projects to supplement or substitute for the contract path that links its Midwest and South regions over SPP’s system. (See MISO Studying Projects to Cut North-South Tx Reliance.)
“MISO wants to get rid of the settlement agreement — specifically, the $27 million in transmission payments they’re making,” Casey Cathey, SPP’s manager of reliability planning and seams, told the committee during its monthly meeting. “They have a stack of projects they’ve looked at. … They’re being very transparent.”
Cathey said MISO intends to fold the projects into its planning efforts, which will be completed by the end of 2020. Similarly, he said, SPP would like to incorporate MISO’s work into its own planning processes and into the RTOs’ next coordinated system plan.
“This is an opportunity for us to have a coordinated plan to meet both MISO and the members’ intentions, but also for SPP to have a portfolio developed that addresses needs along the seam through a series of flowgates that help us to run the market more efficiently,” he said.
Cathey said he would be able to bring more details to the SSC’s December meeting.
Under the terms of a settlement agreement reached in 2015, MISO’s flows on the contract path are capped at 3,000 MW north to south and 2,500 MW in the opposite direction. MISO compensates SPP and six independent transmission owners party to the agreement — Southern Co., Tennessee Valley Authority, Associated Electric Cooperative Inc., Louisville Gas and Electric, Kentucky Utilities and PowerSouth Energy Cooperative — by applying a capacity factor for flows exceeding the previous 1,000-MW contract path in the RTOs’ joint operating agreement.
The settlement agreement expires in January 2021. At that time, the parties can give notice to terminate or revisit the settlement provisions. FERC approved the settlement in 2016. (See FERC OKs MISO-SPP Transmission Settlement.)
RSC-OMS Liaison Group Looks for Answers
Adam McKinnie, an economist with the Missouri Public Service Commission, said SPP and MISO state regulators have gathered initial feedback on the RTOs’ interregional planning processes and will spend the next couple of months evaluating that input.
Commissioners on SPP’s Regional State Committee plan to attend the Organization of MISO States meeting Oct. 24 in New Orleans. The SPP RSC-OMS Liaison Committee will also meet Nov. 17 in San Antonio during the first day of the National Association of Regulatory Utility Commissioners’ annual meeting, McKinnie said.
The Liaison Committee has commissioned an independent analysis to determine whether the RTOs are leaving efficiencies and benefits behind in their interregional planning processes. (See MISO, SPP States Ponder Look at Interregional Planning.)
Stakeholders responded to a request for information in September. Eight of the 14 stakeholders who submitted responses believe an interregional planning analysis will help the committee. Three others suggested additional work on current processes.
Stakeholders have been frustrated by the RTOs’ interregional work, which has yet to result in a joint project.
The commissioners “are looking for information to see what the effects would be from different changes,” McKinnie said. “They didn’t start with a solution. They said, ‘Hey, we need information.’”
The committee has also asked the RTOs’ market monitors to study the grid operators’ markets and operations issues. That work will be delivered by the end of November.
— Tom Kleckner
