SPP staff are busy preparing to address critical comments on the grid operator’s revised Tariff for its Western Energy Imbalance Service (WEIS) as they work to keep the project on track.
The RTO filed its latest version with FERC on Oct. 1 following the commission’s rejection of its first attempt. FERC said the Tariff failed to respect the transmission rights of nonparticipants and could improperly burden reliability coordinators, among other concerns. (See FERC Rejects SPP’s WEIS Tariff.)
The latest filing has drawn more than a dozen intervenors (ER21-3, ER21-4), including repeat protesters Xcel Energy-Colorado, Colorado Springs Utilities and Black Hills Energy. All three Colorado utilities plan to join CAISO’s Western Energy Imbalance Market.
“After a quick read of the comments and protests, the issues are similar to what we have seen in the past,” SPP’s Nicole Wagner said during the Western Markets Executive Committee’s webinar Friday.
RTO staff held a premeeting with FERC staff a couple weeks ago and will meet this week among themselves to determine next steps and how they will reply to comments and protests. SPP has asked for a response by Dec. 1, which would keep the WEIS market on track for its Feb. 1 go-live date.
FERC staff’s primary concern is with the Tariff’s joint dispatch transmission service (JDTS) provisions. SPP staff will collaborate with WEIS transmission providers to ensure their respective tariffs incorporate the correct JDTS language.
David Kelley, SPP’s director of seams and market design, said the regulatory delay has left the WEIS program in yellow status, which the RTO defines as “needing attention.”
Market trials are also considered in yellow status as participants gear up for the start of parallel operations on Dec. 10. Participants are currently testing dispatch signals to resources but will begin “playing” in the production environment during parallel ops.
SPP will launch the WEIS with eight members covering the Western Area Power Administration’s Colorado Missouri and Upper Great Plains West balancing authority areas.
The market, based on the Energy Imbalance Market that SPP operated from 2007 to 2014, continues to attract interest in the West. Bruce Rew, SPP’s senior vice president of operations, recently told the RTO’s stakeholders that several additional utilities reached out to the grid operator following the rolling blackouts in California late this summer. (See Theories Abound over California Blackouts Cause.)
