An SPP task force preparing for EPA’s Clean Power Plan suspended its work last week, having done all it can for the time being.

The task force spent what may have been its final face-to-face meeting Friday in Dallas discussing proposed comments to EPA and a staff-developed white paper assessing rate-based and mass-based compliance. The group will present the white paper — and its comments to EPA — to the SPP Board of Directors/Members Committee on Tuesday. The comments are due to EPA on Jan. 21.

The group agreed it had met its original charge. “I think we’re done,” said Golden Spread Electric Cooperative’s Mike Wise, the task force’s chair.

“There’s not a whole lot left for this task force to do,” agreed SPP Chief Compliance and Administrative Officer Michael Desselle, the task force’s secretary.

The group determined it was too soon to address the implications of a proposed carbon-trading market or the RTO’s role in it.

The draft white paper focuses on how best to determine the supply of allowances and credits and their monitoring, verification and tracking; allocation issues; leakage under mass-based plans; and reliability implications.

SPP Vice President of Engineering Lanny Nickell has taken the point in meeting with member legislative representatives and state air regulators. He told the task force he has been involved in “broad stakeholder discussions” in every state in SPP’s footprint, with the exception of the Dakotas, Montana, Texas and Wyoming.

Nickell spoke most recently at Oklahoma Gov. Mary Fallin’s energy conference in November. Nickell said he encouraged the state to develop a compliance plan despite Fallin’s executive order in August directing state agencies not to do so.

Nickell also said he is often asked when SPP will do an analysis on the final CPP in addition to the three studies it performed based on the draft rule. Dale Niezwaag, a senior legislative representative for Basin Electric Power Cooperative, said he would welcome such a study.

However, the task force decided against an additional study.

“There are too many unknowns to do a study,” Desselle said. “With the number of unknowns and the assumptions we would have to make, it would be too expensive.”

But Wise cautioned the group, “That’s not to say we can’t change that view.”

When discussion shifted to other actions SPP might take, its associate general counsel, Matt Morais, reminded the group the RTO is also working with its peers on the ISO/RTO Council to solidify its positions and determine further actions.

“To the extent there is agreement on these issues with other ISOs, that carries a lot more weight than doing it on our own,” Morais said.

SPP Moves Closer to Making First International Transactions

SPP is preparing to conduct its first international transactions through a joint operating agreement with SaskPower, the principal electric utility in Saskatchewan. SaskPower became an SPP seams neighbor with the Oct. 1 addition of the Integrated System. (See Integrated System to Join SPP Market Oct. 1.)

Staff told the Seams Steering Committee on Thursday that the JOA is pending execution of a billing agreement for emergency energy with NorthPoint Energy, SaskPower’s marketing and billing agent. Once that agreement is executed, SPP will file with the Department of Energy for the necessary permits for international transactions.

With the recent resignations of Richard Ross (American Electric Power) and Roy Boyer (Xcel Energy), the committee has seven open positions.

SPP Sets Seventh Wind Peak in Fall

SPP, which has already set six wind-peak records this fall, established another mark Nov. 23 when it recorded 9,564 MW of wind generation at 9:45 p.m., just the second time it has eclipsed the 9,000-MW level. The RTO generated about a third of its electricity from wind at the time, below its record penetration level of 38.3%.

— Tom Kleckner