FERC last week denied a solar farm developer’s tariff waiver request and a complaint against SPP over the RTO’s interconnection studies for the planned facility (EL22-89).

The commission issued an order May 23 finding that Cage Ranch, a 900 MW project in West Texas, had not met its burden to show that SPP violated its tariff or conducted its studies in an unjust and unreasonable manner. It said the solar facility did not demonstrate the study models underlying the cluster study were defective.

Cage Ranch said in an amended complaint that the study in question should not have been used to determine interconnection costs for the solar farm and other customers in the study group because SPP failed to resolve alleged nonconvergence issues. But FERC pointed out that the grid operator assigned Cage Ranch network upgrade costs using a modeling approach it applies to all interconnection customers.

The Cage Ranch developers last year challenged SPP’s use of what it called a “defective” study model that assigned interconnection costs and calculated its security obligations within its study cluster. It asked FERC to direct the grid operator to resolve the study model’s defects, allow interconnection customers to post security after the defects are resolved, and require SPP to restore the customers’ queue positions in the study cluster.

Cage Ranch also requested a tariff waiver to extend a decision point deadline until FERC resolved the complaint and SPP issued an updated and corrected study. The commission denied the request, finding Cage Ranch did not satisfy the criteria for such requests (the applicant acts in good faith, the waiver is of limited scope, it addresses a concrete problem, and it does not have undesirable consequences).

OPPD Show-cause Order Ended

The commission also accepted SPP’s tariff changes revising Omaha Public Power District’s (OPPD) protocols, effective January 2024, and terminated a show-cause proceeding under Section 206 of the Federal Power Act (ER23-72).

FERC issued the show-cause order last July after determining that OPPD’s protocols under the tariff appeared to be unjust and unreasonable. The commission directed SPP to either show cause as to why the protocols remained just and reasonable or explain the changes that could be made to remedy the identified problems should FERC find the protocols unjust and unreasonable.

In an order issued May 22, the commission found SPP’s proposed revisions to be just and reasonable and consistent with precedent established in 2015 by MISO protocols orders. FERC said the revisions resolved unclear wording and three technical errors identified by two protests late last year.

The commission said the revisions remedy the show-cause order’s identified concerns and terminated the proceeding.

As amended, the revisions require OPPD to respond to information or document requests within seven business days, giving parties additional time to review and raise informal challenges.