SPP’s Board of Directors finally approved the winter-weather staging of a pair of transmission projects that have been held up since October by stakeholder concerns over their need dates and whether they would be competitively bid.
During a virtual meeting Dec. 9, the board approved need dates for the two projects by endorsing the Markets and Operations Policy Committee’s votes the week before: a December 2028 date for the 345-kV Tobias-Elm Creek transmission line on the western side of SPP’s footprint and a December 2025 need date for the 345-kV Buffalo Gap-Delaware project from Kansas into Southwest Missouri.
The latter project’s need date was amended from December 2028 during the MOPC meeting, overriding staff’s recommendation. (See SPP Stakeholders Endorse Need Dates for Delayed Transmission Projects.)
The board’s approval completes the 2024 Integrated Transmission Planning assessment, a record-breaking $7.65 billion portfolio of 89 projects. The directors delayed a decision on the last two projects’ need dates — the earliest that staff identify a project is needed — after failing to reach consensus during several hours of discussion in their October meeting. (See SPP Board Approves $7.65B ITP, Delays Contentious Issue.)
Evergy and other Missouri and Kansas stakeholders were particularly keen on moving up the 154-mile, $484.1 million Buffalo Gap-Delaware project, which brings a new extra-high-voltage source into Missouri that will support mitigation of Wichita-area congestion, Missouri system voltage and transfers from the SPP footprint into Missouri. The project was identified through a model based on December 2022’s Winter Storm Elliott that also analyzed 2025 and 2028.
Evergy, with operations in both states, joined with City Utilities of Springfield (Mo.) and Liberty Utilities in filing a letter before the board meeting urging the earlier need date. They said establishing an immediate need-by date is consistent with SPP’s tariff and the ITP manual; the project will address reliability violations found in all the models and decrease the risk of load shed; and it has broad stakeholder support.
“SPP took a novel approach this year to address resiliency projects by studying select winter weather events because they knew … there was a problem that needed to be addressed that hadn’t been addressed previously, and some of that work resulted in the single most cost-effective ITP in SPP history,” said Kayla Hahn, chair of the Missouri Public Service Commission. “Unfortunately, I’m concerned that that work could potentially be undercut by the delay of this particular project.”
“We have known for some time that the environment created by our generational challenge will put pressure on many aspects of our processes and culture, whether it be setting a longer-term [planning reserve margin] fully assessing resiliency and winter weather scenarios, or assessing our short-term reliability project list,” board Chair John Cupparo said. “We will be facing unprecedented situations that may run counter to our experience on how to analyze and address these issues. How we respond to those situations may also deviate from historical practice but must still be consistent with our regulatory obligations and our mission.”
The board’s Members Committee approved the Buffalo Gap-Delaware project with its advisory vote, 16-6, opposed primarily by renewable interests.
“We’ve heard a lot about how these upgrades are needed for reliability. We’ve been burned by making decisions based on [transmission owners] saying one thing publicly but not moving forward on much-needed transmission,” EDP Renewables’ David Mindham said. “There’s currently no way to hold TOs accountable for not building transmission timely in SPP. If we have the later need date, these projects will be competitive, and that shines a big old spotlight on” the TOs.
The committee approved the Tobias-Elm Creek Project, 11-7, with four abstentions. TOs were in the opposition, with some saying they still had questions over staff’s use of the winter models. The project is an 85-mile segment valued at $887.5 million.
JTIQ NTCs Coming Soon
The board endorsed staff’s recommendation to approve the three SPP projects in the Joint Targeted Interconnection Queue (JTIQ) portfolio with MISO and directed the RTO to issue them notifications to construct.
The three projects — a new 345/161-kV double circuit and rebuilt 161-kV lines near Omaha, Neb.; new 345-kV lines in Nebraska; and an expanded and rebuilt 345-kV substation in Sibley, Iowa — cost a combined $436 million, according to 2023 conceptual engineering and construction estimates. The JTIQ portfolio’s five projects cost a combined $1.6 billion.
However, SPP and MISO expect a grant of up to $464.5 million in matching federal funds under the U.S. Department of Energy’s Grid Resilience and Innovation Partnerships (GRIP) program to offset some of the projects’ capital costs. (See MISO, SPP Ditch 90/10 JTIQ Allocation After $465M DOE Grant.)
FERC in November approved tariff revisions and modifications to the joint operating agreement between the two grid operators that enshrines a structural and cost-allocation framework for the five 345-kV projects (ER24-2798, ER24-2825). The RTOs plan to allocate 100% of the projects’ costs to interconnection customers, consistent with the cost-causation principle. (See FERC Approves JTIQ Framework, Cost Allocation.)
The effort began in 2020. The RTOs say the portfolio will enable between 28 GW and 53 GW of interregional generation capacity near their seam.
The committee unanimously favored the motion, 22-0.
Lang, Hough to Lead MOPC
By approving its consent agenda, the board sided with the Corporate Governance Committee’s recommendation that Omaha Public Power District’s Joe Lang and City Utilities of Springfield’s Olivia Hough serve as MOPC’s chair and vice chair, respectively. They will serve two-year terms expiring Dec. 31, 2026.
The agenda’s approval also results in the following organizational group chairs for the next two years:
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- Credit Practices Working Group: Caleb Head, Northeast Texas Electric Cooperative.
- Economic Studies Working Group: Calvin Daniels, Western Farmers Electric Cooperative.
- Project Cost Working Group: Angie Anderson, Sunflower Electric Power.
- System Protection and Control Advisory Group: David Oswald, Liberty Utilities.
- Market Working Group: Richard Ross, American Electric Power.
- Operations Training Users Forum: Derek Stafford, Grand River Dam Authority.
- Generation Interconnection Advisory Group: Jason Tanner, NextEra Energy.
All the chairs are incumbents except for Oswald and Tanner. Both are their groups’ vice chairs.
The consent agenda also will revise the PCWG’s scope to include reviewing delayed upgrades and providing recommendations to the board in a timely manner.
