On June 1, 2015, FERC accepted the Western Interconnection Order 1000 Interregional Compliance Filings. After four years of public process wrangling what did we end up with?
CAISO, NTTG, and WestConnect have agreed on a common “Interregional Transmission Planning Process Narrative” which will detail how they will achieve coordination of their planning processes. Columbia Grid, however, has decided to come up with its own document.
As finally approved, FERC unfortunately is not requiring development of an interconnection-wide plan. Furthermore, the transmission planning regions (NTTG, WestConnect and CAISO) are not required to do joint planning. The regions are only required to share data and information and share their individual plans to facilitate identification of inter-regional transmission projects that might be more efficient or cost-effective than separate regional projects.
WECC and its Transmission Expansion Planning Policy Committee (TEPPC) have no formal role in Order 1000 processes.
The regional transmission planning entities will hold an Annual Interregional Meeting once a year (in February or March). Every two years there is a deadline for parties to submit Inter-regional Transmission Projects (ITPs) for consideration in the planning process/during the interregional meeting. And there are procedures for joint evaluation and cost allocation of ITPs.
It’s certainly better than what we had before Order 1000. But I am disappointed that the Order 1000 process didn’t go so far as to require interregional planning or create a formal role for WECC’s planning process. Did FERC just lost interest?
If you have questions about transmission planning in the West (whether at WECC or any of the regional groups, please contact us).
