By Tom Kleckner

SPP asked FERC last week to resolve a “Catch-22” situation facing the RTO regarding the handling of settlement revenue stemming from a dispute with MISO (ER16-791).

A March FERC order conditionally accepted SPP’s proposal to distribute to its members $16 million in funds reached in a settlement with MISO over the latter’s use of SPP’s transmission system to transfer power freely between its North and South regions. The order also set the docket for hearing and settlement procedures to resolve factual issues in dispute. (See “MISO Settlement Funds Held Up,” SPP RSC Briefs.)

SPP said it has begun distributing settlement revenue to members with its May invoices, but only to those members who signed on to the settlement agreement. At issue, the RTO says, is what to do with transmission-owning members not subject to FERC jurisdiction that have not agreed to a voluntary refund commitment as part of the commission’s final order on allocation.

The RTO asked FERC to confirm it can hold those members’ “allocated shares” until the hearing and settlement procedures end. It also requested the commission clarify SPP will not owe interest on any revenues not distributed to any non-jurisdictional TO that has not signed the refund commitment.

The clarification, it said, “will resolve the ‘Catch-22’ facing SPP, whereby SPP cannot … disburse funds to entities over which the commission cannot order refunds in the event of overpayment by SPP; yet, on the other hand, SPP lacks any explicit authority to hold funds on behalf of these entities.”

SPP said “many, but not all” of its impacted TOs have provided the requested voluntary refund commitment. The proceeding’s first settlement conference was held April 21, with a second scheduled June 16.