SPP Order 1000 compliance filing proposes open competitive transmission project process
LITTLE ROCK, Ark. - Southwest Power Pool, Inc. (“SPP”) submitted Tuesday its filing to comply with the regional requirements of Order 1000 to the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (“FERC”). In its compliance filing, SPP proposes a competitive solicitation model that promotes open competition for 300kV (kilovolts) transmission projects and above.
The filing proposes to maintain SPP’s Highway/Byway cost allocation methodology as well as SPP’s Integrated Transmission Planning (ITP) process approved by FERC just two years ago. The Highway/Byway cost allocation methodology and the ITP process were developed and approved by SPP’s stakeholders and SPP’s Regional State Committee (RSC), comprising state retail regulators in SPP’s footprint. When the ITP process and the Highway/Byway methodology were approved, FERC heralded both as positive and innovative steps toward the construction of transmission in the SPP region.
SPP describes in its compliance filing how the proposed competitive solicitation process was developed over dozens of stakeholder meetings during the last year and has the support of its members. The filing also includes a letter from the RSC demonstrating its unanimous support for the compliance filing’s cost-allocation aspects.
SPP’s Senior Vice President of Regulatory Policy and General Counsel, Paul Suskie, expressed gratitude and appreciation to SPP’s stakeholders – including the RSC – for their careful work in developing this filing. “For more than a year, SPP’s stakeholders have diligently worked to develop a competitive model for new transmission projects with the removal of a federal right of first refusal in the SPP footprint in accordance with FERC’s policy contained in Order 1000”, Suskie said. “As a result of this diligent work, SPP’s tariff revisions were approved unanimously by all stakeholder groups involved in the process.”
SPP was a founding member of the North American Electric Reliability Corporation in 1968, and was designated by the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) as a Regional Transmission Organization (RTO) in 2004 and a Regional Entity (RE) in 2007. SPP interacts with FERC and the Environmental Protection Agency around the issues of regulations and reliability of the bulk electrical systems. Additionally, SPP’s Regional Statement Committee, which is a central part of an overall governance structure, is comprised of the state regulators in its footprint.
About Southwest Power Pool, Inc.
Founded in 1941, SPP is a group of 68 members in Arkansas, Kansas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Missouri, Nebraska, New Mexico, Oklahoma, and Texas that serve more than 15 million customers. Membership is comprised of investor-owned utilities, municipal systems, generation and transmission cooperatives, state authorities, wholesale generators, power marketers, and independent transmission companies. SPP's footprint includes 48,930 miles of transmission lines and 370,000 square miles of service territory. As an RTO, SPP ensures reliable supplies of power, adequate transmission infrastructure, and competitive wholesale prices of electricity. The SPP RE oversees compliance enforcement and reliability standards development. Learn more about SPP by visiting our Newsroom.