The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission last week rejected SPP’s proposal that the RTO review the information that transmission owners include in their initial revenue requirement filings after joining the RTO (ER15-859).

SPP filed the proposal with FERC in January as a result of a 2014 settlement reached with Southwestern Public Service Co. in a dispute over whether the transmission facilities of Tri-County Electric Cooperative were eligible to be included in SPP transmission rates (EL13-15, EL13-35).

SPP said the review process, which was unanimously approved by the SPP Members Committee, was intended to identify issues that might result in challenges to the initial rate filings. The RTO said it would have no authority to prevent a transmission owner from overriding SPP’s concerns in its filing with FERC.

The Missouri Joint Municipal Electric Utility Commission, the Kansas Power Pool and South Central MCN, a competitive transmission company that plans to partner with electric cooperatives and municipal utilities in SPP, filed protests in February.

The commission said the proposed review process, which could take as long as six months after a new transmission owner’s execution of the SPP membership agreement, was unreasonable.

“We agree with protesters that SPP’s proposed six-month review process could unjustly and unreasonably impair a new transmission owner’s ability to recover its costs,” the commission said.

The commission said it recognized that SPP was attempting to create a consensus solution based on the 2014 settlement. “However, we find that the review process SPP proposes to mandate here could unjustly and unreasonably impair a new transmission owner’s ability to recover its costs for transmission service it provides under the SPP Tariff.”