NV Energy is seeking approval from Nevada regulators to establish an account for tracking expenses related to its efforts to join an RTO by 2030 — a goal that’s likely to be accomplished “incrementally,” the company said.

After creating the regulatory asset account, NV Energy would seek recovery of its RTO exploration costs in future rate proceedings, according to a filing this month with the Public Utilities Commission of Nevada (PUCN). The request is part of a proposed amendment to the utility’s integrated resource plan.

Senate Bill 448 from the Nevada legislature’s 2021 session requires transmission providers in the state to join an RTO by Jan. 1, 2030, unless the PUCN grants a request for a waiver or delay.

NV Energy said it’s already spending money to meet the mandate, including hiring two new employees who are assigned to the task.

In addition, the company is facing costs related to its participation in the Western Markets Exploratory Group (WMEG). The stakeholder group is having in-depth discussions on the design of two proposed day-ahead markets: CAISO’s extended day-ahead market and SPP’s Markets+.

The group plans to hire an “unbiased third party” to conduct a cost-benefit analysis comparing the two day-ahead market proposals, with scenarios for the markets’ possible footprints. WMEG members would pay for the study on a load-share basis.

NV Energy described the day-ahead markets as a first step toward joining an RTO.

“In coordinating with the other Western stakeholders, it is apparent that formation of an RTO is most likely to be accomplished incrementally by first implementing additional organized market services to the real-time markets … as well as joining a day-ahead market,” Kiley Moore, NV Energy’s regional transmission and market development director, said in written testimony included in the filing.

Moore expects the cost-benefit study of the day-ahead markets to be finished in February. The studies will also analyze scenarios in which utilities that have joined a day-ahead market then establish and join an RTO.

Moore said that after NV Energy joins a day-ahead market, it will work with regional stakeholders on services such as regional transmission planning.

NV Energy has been participating in development of the Western Resource Adequacy Program (WRAP), which is Western Power Pool’s regional reliability planning and compliance program. NV Energy is one of 26 utilities that have joined WRAP’s non-binding phase.

“Introducing a common resource adequacy requirement across the West ensures no one entity leans on the others for continuous support so all can receive a diversity benefit for joining a market and future RTO,” Moore wrote.

In addition, NV Energy is participating in Nevada’s Regional Transmission Coordination Task Force, which held its first meeting in April. Creation of the task force was a requirement of SB 448. (See Nev. Looks to Capitalize on Becoming Tx Crossroads.)

The next meeting of the task force is scheduled for Oct. 12. The group will prepare a report to the legislature, which is due by Nov. 30.