By Tom Kleckner
FERC last week accepted revisions to SPP’s joint operating agreement with Western Area Power Administration-Upper Great Plains Region (WAPA-UGP), denying rehearing and clarification requests by MISO and 23 of its transmission owners (EL12-60, ER12-1586).
The commission’s April 21 order granted SPP and the Integrated System’s request for clarification that the term “energy exchange” reflects their intent that the JOA does not affect the transmission rights or service of third parties.
MISO and its TOs had protested FERC’s September 2012 order accepting the JOA, which was filed in April 2012 as a precursor to the IS’ membership in SPP. They said part of the JOA would be “incompatible” with market-to-market coordination between MISO and SPP when the latter’s Integrated Marketplace began operating, and that the agreement equated to “assessing compensation for loop flow.”
FERC rejected both arguments. The IS, comprising WAPA-UGP, Basin Electric Power Cooperative and Heartland Consumers Power District, became full transmission-owning members of SPP in October.
The commission clarified that that sections 5.4-5.6 of the JOA are the parties’ method for addressing contract path capacity determinations. The commission affirmed its prior determination that the language does not violate market-to-market principles or constitute unauthorized loop flow compensation.
“As the commission stated elsewhere in the Sept. 18 order, sections 5.4-5.6 of the [WAPA-SPP] JOA do not govern loop flow; rather, loop flow is governed by the congestion management process.”
