SPP said Wednesday it will schedule a special Board of Directors meeting to consider Evergy’s request to restudy a competitive project in southeastern Kansas that the utility said collides with its regional planning efforts.

The board approved the 138-kV project last month despite protests from Evergy, the incumbent transmission owner. The Kansas City utility requested staff instead re-examine the project and said it would request an immediate restudy should the project be approved. (See “Board Approves Tx Project Soon to be Re-evaluated,” SPP Board of Directors/MC Briefs: Jan. 27, 2021.)

SPP issued a request for proposal on Feb. 2 for the competitive upgrade, which would replace an aging Evergy line between the Butler and Tioga substations. Three days later, Evergy Kansas Central asked that the project be re-evaluated, saying it had originally been identified through the RTO’s planning process as a “substantial” rebuild of the existing 99-year-old facility, not a 100% greenfield project that qualified as a competitive project.

“As a result, all analysis conducted to-date was based on assumptions and cost estimates which are no longer applicable to the current project scope,” Evergy wrote in its re-evaluation request.

The utility said the restudy was necessary because the scope change in the RFP is “significant and substantive” and no longer aligns with the original assessment.

Evergy has begun work on a 35-mile rebuild of the Butler-Altoona line, which it said has been identified as a need in three SPP planning assessments since 2017. The utility expects to complete the work by the end of next year.

The competitive upgrade “is definitely a collision of local and regional planning,” said Denise Buffington, Evergy’s director of federal regulatory affairs. “We think the facilities we are putting in the area should be considered as SPP determines whether or not to move forward with the project. SPP should not be building redundant infrastructure.”

Buffington said that, based on her understanding of competitive project restudies, the upgrade could not be modified to pick up where Evergy’s work leaves off, resulting in the redundancy.

“We have been trying since 2017 to get in line with SPP on needs of this area,” she said. “We need to do what is right for our customers. It isn’t all about economics for us.”

During the board meeting, staff will recommend whether the competitive restudy should be performed. Under the tariff, SPP can also recommend whether it is necessary to suspend the project’s transmission owner selection process.

Should the board direct a restudy, staff will conduct the re-evaluation and provide a recommendation as to whether the competitive upgrade should be withdrawn. If it is, the applicable RFP would be withdrawn and the selection process terminated.

If the competitive project survives the challenge, the selection process will continue or be reinstated. The RFP response window will close on the original close date or 60 days after the selection process is reinstated, whichever is later.