Climate + Energy Project

Yesterday, FERC commissioners announced a new rule that will change the way transmission lines across the nation are planned and paid for. Order No. 1000 requires public utility transmission providers to improve transmission planning processes and allocate costs for new transmission facilities to beneficiaries of those facilities. It also requires public utility transmission providers to align transmission planning and cost allocation. According to FERC, these changes will remove barriers to development of transmission facilities.

What this means for the Southwest Power Pool remains to be seen.

Kansas, along with Oklahoma, Nebraska and parts of Missouri, Arkansas, New Mexico, Texas and Louisiana is served by a regional transmission organization (RTO) called the Southwest Power Pool (SPP). Long thought of as leaders in the industry, SPP’s  “Highway/Byway” cost allocation method (approved by FERC last year) already focuses on the region as a whole, as opposed to the traditional transmission planning approach that focuses on local reliability issues.

This method calls for costs to be allocated according to the voltage of the new transmission facilities. For example, the costs of facilities operating at 300 kilovolts (kV) and above are allocated 100 percent across the SPP region on a postage stamp basis. For costs of facilities operating above 100 kV and below 300 kV, allocation is one-third on a regional postage stamp basis and two-thirds to the zone in which the facilities are located. Finally, the costs of facilities operating at or under 100 kV are allocated fully to the zone in which the facilities are located.

Chairman Wellinghoff and Commissioners LaFleur, Spitzer and Norris all spoke favorably about the rule. Although he supports the rule, Commissioner Moeller stated “while today’s rule moves us forward to achieve those goals, a different approach would have been better on these issues.”

On August 15-17th in Hutchinson KS, stakeholders across the SPP will be able to discuss the implications of the FERC rule along with key issues related to transmission expansion at the Heartland Transmission Conference co-hosted by the Energy Future Coalition and CEP.

This conference is sponsored in part by the Hutchinson/Reno County Chamber of Commerce, Clean Line Energy Partners, Heartland Alliance for Regional Transmission, Hutchinson Community College, ITC Great Plains, Hutchinson/Reno County CVB, Siemens and Westar Energy and will feature Kansas Governor Sam Brownback.

The conference is free of charge, but space is limited, please register here before August 8th. For more information contact Dorothy Barnett 785-424-0444 or barnett@climateandenergy.org.

Posted by Dorothy Barnett, CEP