SPP’s Regional State Committee failed to reach agreement last week on a change in its voting procedures.
During a conference call that stretched over two days, the committee considered three voting structures — simple majority, majority plus one and two-thirds — to be followed when the committee wants to intervene in federal regulatory or judicial proceedings. The seven-person committee voted 4-3 on a majority-plus one structure, falling short of the RSC’s current two-thirds threshold.
The RSC will grow to 11 members Oct. 1 when it adds representation from the Iowa, Minnesota, North Dakota and South Dakota regulatory commissions, giving the committee another chance to revisit the issue. The committee is comprised of regulatory commissioners in SPP’s footprint and provides collective agency input on matters of regional importance related to bulk electric transmission.
“My thought is to take no action and let the new states come in,” said RSC President Dana Murphy of the Oklahoma Corporation Commission. “Maybe that will be the time to look at the language with the full group.”
The previously divided RSC agreed with Murphy on that point.
Congestion Rights Tariff Filing Due
The RSC also reviewed SPP’s progress in meeting an Oct. 30 filing deadline for Tariff changes required by FERC.
The commission conditionally approved SPP’s rules on incremental long-term congestion rights (ILTCRs) last October, and then denied a rehearing request by SPP and intervenors in July (ER14-2553).
Staff told the RSC the language now clarifies that a party constructing an improvement has priority for LTCR capacity made available by the improvement. Short-term rights will be made available as soon as the improvement is in service, with long-term rights awarded during the next annual cycle.
The revised language also allocates LTCRs and ILTCRs for network upgrades funded through a combination of rolled-in transmission rates and directly assigns charges based on the ratio of each party’s funding of directly assigned facilities.
As FERC requested, the proposed Tariff language eliminates the minimum $5 million investment requirement to be eligible for ILTCRs.
The changes, which have already cleared SPP working groups, will be considered by the Markets and Operations Policy Committee at its Oct. 13-14 meeting. The RSC will also vote on the final language before it goes to the Board of Directors in late October.
CPP Task Force Fills Out its Roster
The Clean Power Plan Task Force, which will recommend SPP’s role in addressing the Environmental Protection Agency’s carbon emission rule, has announced its representation.
The task force will be chaired by Mike Wise, vice president of transmission and operations for Golden Spread Electric Cooperative.
Other members of the task force include:
Burton Crawford, KCP&L Greater Missouri Operations Co.; Dennis Florom, Lincoln Electric System; Dale Niezwaag, Basin Electric Power Cooperative; Wayne Penrod, Sunflower Electric Power Corp.; Lauren Quillian, Xcel Energy; and Richard Ross, American Electric Power. Michael Desselle, SPP’s chief compliance and chief administrative officer, will serve as the group’s staff secretary.
The task force has been charged by SPP’s Strategic Planning Committee with reviewing the CPP and EPA’s model federal implementation plan. It will recommend what role SPP should play in assisting states’ compliance, and inform staff and member dialogue with environmental regulators.
In one of its first formal actions, the group and SPP staff hosted a webinar last week for members of the RTO’s 14 states’ air-quality regulators, utility commissions and key governmental contacts at its member utilities.
SPP’s presentation noted its three assessments of the CPP indicate a regional approach to compliance is better than state-by-state approaches. State-by-state compliance would require 114% more generation retirements, a 9% increase in “generation at risk for retirement,” 185% more new natural gas generation and about the same percentage of new renewables, SPP said.
States with multiple RTOs should be aware of the potential for “overlapping impacts that could require broader coordination,” it said.
SPP RE Winter Assessment
SPP’s Regional Entity (RE) shared its draft winter reliability assessment during a webinar last week, saying reserve margins are “adequate” for what is expected to be a normal winter.
The RE said SPP has 67,058 MW of capacity available, with another 761 MW to come online during the winter months. That should be more than enough to meet expected winter peak demand of up to 42,000 MW.
The SPP RE also expects about 162 miles of 230-kV transmission to be added during the winter.
SPP engineer Chris Haley said fuel supply and wind integration remain concerns, but it has not identified any unique or unusual operational challenges for the winter.
Haley also noted SPP will assume planning coordinator functions Oct. 1 for the Integrated System (IS) entities registered with the Midwest Reliability Organization (MRO) Regional Entity: Western Area Power Administration-Upper Great Plains, Basin Electric Power Cooperative and Heartland Consumers Power District.
While Nebraska is still registered with the MRO, both Nebraska and the IS are part of the SPP RTO operational and planning area.
The winter assessment is created using data submitted by SPP reporting entities, which is validated by a peer-review process. The draft assessment will undergo additional peer review at the North American Electric Reliability Corp. before it is finalized.
The SPP RE will host its Winter Preparedness Workshop on Dec. 10.
— Tom Kleckner
