After four joint studies by SPP and MISO last decade failed to turn up an interregional project, the RTOs began another effort in 2020 by searching for transmission projects that could solve congestion issues along their seam.

They have again come up empty.

“We basically have confirmed that we do not have any viable candidate projects this year,” SPP’s Neil Robertson told the RTO’s Seams Advisory Group on Friday, confirming what staffs have been warning stakeholders in recent months. (See Search for Small SPP-MISO Interregional Projects May be Fruitless.)

He declined to go into detail, saying he is saving that discussion for when the RTOs’ staffs present a “full” presentation to stakeholders during a virtual Interregional Planning Stakeholder Advisory Committee meeting Wednesday.

Robertson said no project met the RTOs’ criteria for qualifying as targeted market efficiency projects (TMEPs), a construct MISO and PJM use on their seam.

“We just wanted to go ahead and give that brief preview that we have not identified any good project candidates that we can recommend to the MISO or SPP board for approval,” he said.

The Joint Targeted Interconnection Queue study screened for possible TMEPs when market-to-market flowgates amassed $1 million or more in congestion costs over a two-year period. The RTOs catalogued seven permanent flowgates that met that criteria but failed others. (See MISO, SPP Identify Hotspots for Smaller Interregional Tx Projects and MISO, SPP Hunt for Small Interregional Tx Projects.)

Missouri PSC Grants CCN for NextEra Project

The Missouri Public Service Commission on Friday approved an agreement with parties involved in NextEra Energy Transmission (NEET) Southwest’s effort to secure a certificate of convenience and necessity to build part of an SPP competitive project (EA-2022-0234).

The PSC agreed with staff’s recommendations that the CCN be approved with certain conditions:

• there’s a need for the transmission service;
• NEET is qualified and has the financial ability to provide the proposed service;
• NEET’s proposal is economically feasible; and
• the service promotes the public interest.

The CCN is for a 9-mile segment of the 94-mile, single-circuit 345-kV transmission line between Associated Electric Cooperative Inc.’s Blackberry substation in Missouri and Every Kansas Central’s Wolf Creek substation in Kansas.

SPP granted the competitive project, its fourth, to NEET Southwest last year. The NextEra Energy (NYSE:NEE) subsidiary estimated the project will cost $85.2 million and be completed in 2025. (See “Expert Panel Awards Competitive Project to NextEra Energy Transmission,” SPP Board of Directors/Members Committee Briefs: Oct. 26, 2021.)

Kansas regulators awarded NEET a CCN for its state’s portion of the project in August. (See Kansas Regulators Approve CCN for Competitive Project.)