By Tom Kleckner

SANTA FE, N.M. — With wind energy reaching unprecedented penetration levels, SPP’s Markets and Operations Policy Committee asked staff last week to re-evaluate whether two transmission projects in the windy Texas-Oklahoma Panhandle region should have their need dates accelerated.

Staff had been hoping to receive approval to accelerate the two projects, a recommendation that had already been OK’d by three working groups. However, stakeholder concerns over a lack of technical input, outdated studies of wind energy and going outside normal planning processes caused the MOPC to request further staff analysis.

The motion was unanimously approved. SPP staff will return the recommendation to July’s MOPC meeting and will eventually need approval from the Regional State Committee.

“We can accommodate [the motion] and not impact reliability if we come back in July and make a decision,” said Casey Cathey, SPP’s manager of operations engineering analysis and support.

SPP said it set a new record for North American ISOs and RTOs when it registered a 48.32% wind-penetration peak April 5. (See “SPP Leapfrogs ERCOT with 48.32% Wind Penetration Mark,” SPP Briefs.)

SPP’s 2015 wind integration study recommended 19 transmission projects with notices-to-construct (NTCs) as candidates for acceleration. Ten of the projects have already been voluntarily sped up by transmission owners, four were found to be not feasible for acceleration and three were withdrawn as part of a near-term assessment and will be incorporated into the RTO’s new planning process.

The two remaining NTCs — a 230-kV Southwestern Public Service project in the Texas Panhandle and a 345-kV Oklahoma Gas & Electric project in West Oklahoma — were recommended for acceleration. Cathey said accelerating the projects will reduce existing congestion and ease voltage-collapse fears.

Existing Congestion

“Both [systems] have congestion on them right now. … It’s not wind coming three years from now,” Cathey said. “The longer we delay, the more your benefits are reduced.”

Cathey said SPS could shave half a year off its timeline without a cost to its sponsors, while the OG&E project could reduce its timeline by almost two years, saving $437,000 in the process.

The acceleration recommendation was approved by the Transmission, Economic Studies and Operating Reliability working groups.

Some MOPC members, however, expressed concern about re-evaluating projects outside the Integrated Transmission Planning (ITP) process and a lack of involvement by some of the working groups.

“I do not think the Tariff supports a re-evaluation or acceleration of an NTC outside of the ITP process,” Sunflower Electric Power’s Al Tamimi said in opposing the ESWG recommendation.

“My biggest concern is the lack of involvement, or minimal involvement, with the TWG through this process,” Westar Energy’s John Olsen said. “I get very uncomfortable sitting around this table to be making those kind of calls without having our technical folks review them.”

American Electric Power’s Richard Ross asked whether the re-evaluations could be conducted through SPP’s high-priority study process. The RTO can conduct up to three such studies a year at the stakeholders’ request.

“It seems we’re tying SPP’s hands here,” Ross said. “To me, it makes sense to accelerate these projects, if this is the proper way of doing this. Has legal bought off on sprinkling some high-priority magic dust on this?”

“It may be we need a supplemental analysis to warrant the two accelerations,” SPP Vice President of Engineering Lanny Nickell said. “Now we have to figure out a way legally to justify the acceleration of the projects in accordance with the Tariff. If the two TOs want SPP to direct acceleration, that’s a change in the planning processes.”

Wind Integration Study

The MOPC also unanimously approved staff’s proposed scope for a second phase of a wind integration study, but only after revising the recommendation to ensure the TWG and ESWG are included in the review process.

The study will build on last year’s analysis, with updated models and assumptions looking at wind cases as high as 60%. The results are to be published before next January’s MOPC meeting.

Cathey said the report is intended to be a reliability study rather than a high-priority study and will use 2017 planning models. He said the Electric Power Research Institute will help staff on the report, which will also use data from PowerTech Labs’ voltage security assessment tool.

“Phase II is about what we didn’t have time to assess in Phase I,” he said. “We’re trying to do something that’s [defensible] and accurate. We’d like to get a more dynamic, up-to-date look.”

Cathey noted that with firm transmission rights now part of SPP’s transmission congestion rights market, “We don’t know what firm rights are any more.

“The wind blows, and it’s in the money. We’re backing down coal, and that’s the reality of what’s happening on the system.”

Cathey said he expects the study to recommend policy and procedure changes, but that it “won’t mandate anything.”

“There’s a good chance we’ll be at 60% wind penetration in 2017,” said Bruce Rew, SPP’s vice president of operations. “The sooner we can get [the study] done, the sooner we can be prepared for that.”

Staff said the study will cost approximately $145,000, but it is waiting on further information from vendors.