Print North America News

FERC approves SPP’s transmission planning proposal [free access]

The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) has approved Southwest Power Pool’s (SPP) Integrated Transmission Plan (ITP) which includes 20-year, 10-year and near-term assessments to determine SPP's transmission needs for maintaining reliability in the mid-continent region.

For longer-term planning, the ITP focuses on higher voltage facilities. In the 20-year assessments, the focus is on facilities at voltage levels of 300 kV and above, and for 10-year assessments the focus is on 100-300 kV facilities. The near-term assessment is for meeting reliability needs and compliance with North American Electric Reliability Corporation (NERC) standards.

In its review, FERC found the ITP to be consistent with the transmission planning principles of Order No 890 which directs transmission providers to develop a transmission planning process that satisfies nine principles – coordination, openness, transparency, information exchange, comparability, dispute resolution, regional participation, economic planning studies and cost allocation for new projects.

With FERC approval, the ITP can now be used by SPP and its stakeholders to determine the need for transmission facilities.