By Tom Kleckner
The Public Utility Commission of Texas last week granted ERCOT and SPP staff’s request for a five-week extension before reporting back on how they will together study Lubbock Power & Light’s planned move to ERCOT.
Commission Chair Donna Nelson acknowledged the complexity of analyzing LP&L’s integration into ERCOT and its impact on SPP’s neighboring grid. “We have to assume [ERCOT and SPP] are moving as quickly as they can,” Nelson said during the PUC’s Aug. 18 meeting. “We’ll give you this extension, but don’t ask for another.”
The commission last month detailed specific issues the RTOs should analyze and asked them to produce a study scope before its August open meeting. The PUC has regulatory oversight of ERCOT and would have to approve LP&L’s migration to the Texas grid (Docket No. 45633). (See PUCT Asks ERCOT, SPP to Coordinate on Lubbock P&L Move.)
ERCOT’s director of system planning, Warren Lasher, and SPP’s vice president of engineering, Lanny Nickell, responded with a joint letter Aug. 11 saying they were “not yet able” to provide a firm schedule for completing the analyses. They promised a “more definitive response” for the commission’s Sept. 22 open meeting.
“At that time, ERCOT and SPP expect to be able to provide more information regarding the coordinated studies, including technical details and a more informed estimate of the study schedule,” they said.
“I look forward to hearing from them. Go forth and do good,” Nelson said.
According to the letter, staff have met four times since the July 20 PUC meeting, comparing their transmission-planning study processes and discussing study approaches and project schedules. Lasher and Nickell noted the two RTOs have not worked together on transmission-planning studies in the past and said differences in their study processes meant they would not be able to supply the requested details before last week’s PUC meeting.
The two officials said the study could be completed as early as the second quarter of 2017.
Last September, LP&L announced its intention to disconnect 430 MW of its load from SPP and join ERCOT in June 2019. An ERCOT study completed in June indicated it will cost $364 million and take 141 miles of new 345-kV right of way to incorporate LP&L.
El Paso Electric, SWEPCO Settlements
In other actions, the PUC approved a settlement with El Paso Electric allowing the utility to build a voluntary community solar pilot program (Docket No. 44800) and a settlement in which Southwestern Electric Power Co. will pay $23,000 for violating reliability and service standards when it fell behind in tree trimming (Docket No. 46117).
The SWEPCO order gave Commissioner Ken Anderson a chance to speak out on one of his pet peeves. “Tree trimming needs to be done on an annual basis,” he told SWEPCO representatives. “You’re in East Texas, where things actually grow.”
PUC staff are working on a study evaluating Texas utility tree-trimming practices.
Cost Allocation for Seams Projects
Nelson and Anderson also briefly discussed holding a special meeting involving MISO and SPP staff to gather their input on allocating costs for seams projects. Anderson, a member of the Organization of MISO States, said Missouri representatives have questioned whether the interregional planning changes FERC ordered for MISO and PJM should also apply to MISO’s seams with SPP and ERCOT.
Acting on a complaint by Northern Indiana Public Service Co., the commission in April ordered MISO to reduce its minimum voltage threshold for interregional economic transmission projects from 345 kV to 100 kV and to eliminate the $5 million cost threshold for such projects. It also ordered the removal of the requirement for a third, separate benefit-cost analysis for the combined regions (EL13-88). (See FERC Orders Changes to MISO-PJM Interregional Planning.)
