By Tom Kleckner

FERC last week denied multiple requests for rehearing and clarification of its 2014 order that conditionally approved the core Integrated System entities’ SPP membership (ER14-2850).

The November 2014 order approved Western Area Power Administration–Upper Great Plains (WAPA-UGP), Basin Electric Power Cooperative and Heartland Consumers Power District’s membership into SPP, which became official Oct. 1. The order also granted a federal service exemption to WAPA, which allowed the federal agency to become the first such entity to join an RTO.

At the same time, the order established hearing and settlement judge procedures for SPP’s proposed Tariff revisions to allow the entities’ membership.

The 2014 order also set several seams issues for settlement procedures but found the perpetuation of pancaked transmission rates between the Integrated System and MISO and between SPP and MISO to be beyond the proceeding’s scope. FERC also declined to include issues connected to Corn Belt Power Cooperative and Central Power Electric Cooperative, as neither had yet transferred their facilities to SPP (the two co-ops will join the RTO on Jan. 1, 2016).

MISO, Kansas’ State Corporation Commission and Otter Tail Power all filed rehearing requests.

FERC denied the Kansas SCC’s request for a rehearing over WAPA’s federal exemption and claims that it ignored the latter commission’s expert testimony. FERC said its acceptance of the exemption was based on its policy of promoting RTO membership, and that Kansas’ expert testimony used SPP’s analysis as a baseline in doing its own study of the integration’s stakeholder benefits.

The Kansas commission also joined with MISO and Otter Tail in asking for a rehearing on FERC’s acceptance of SPP’s base-plan upgrade and regional cost-sharing proposal. That request was denied, with the commission finding SPP “crafted a reasonable transition proposal for integrating the current SPP and Integrated System transmission systems.”

FERC also denied MISO’s argument that the five-year transition proposal for the MISO-Entergy integration should have served as a model for the SPP-IS proposal. The commission said the MISO-Entergy transition proposal was developed, in part, “to prevent unfair subsidization of [project costs] required to make Entergy’s transmission infrastructure comparable to MISO’s footprint,” and that no parties in the SPP-IS proceeding had alleged deficiencies.

The commission rejected another Kansas commission rehearing request regarding the integrated entities’ responsibility for SPP’s regionally funded legacy facilities. FERC found SPP and the Integrated System “crafted a practical, reciprocal cost allocation approach for facilities in service before the integration date that is consistent with commission precedent.”