Southwest Power Pool Inc. (SPP) has submitted 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 it says promotes open competition for 300 kV 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, according to SPP.
SPP says 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.
“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,” says Paul Suskie, SPP’s senior vice president of regulatory policy and general counsel. “As a result of this diligent work, SPP’s tariff revisions were approved unanimously by all stakeholder groups involved in the process.”
