Electric Co-op Today

The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission has approved a regional transmission organization’s proposal to expand the availability of wind resources by revising the allocation of costs for the transmission needed for integrating them into the grid.

Under the plan (Docket ER09-1039), the Southwest Power Pool will allocate a greater percentage of network up­grade costs associated with wind resources to transmission customers across its entire region.

“Our action today represents a significant step…toward leveling the playing field for all generating resources,” FERC Chairman Jon Wellinghoff said June 18.

“The plan also ensures that zones with substantial wind resources do not bear a disproportionate amount of the cost of network upgrades that are needed for those resources to serve loads in other zones,” he added.

In its application, the power pool cited the “unique characteristics” of wind resources, noting that they are generally located in areas far from the load they serve and that large-scale investments in network upgrades are often necessary to transmit the energy produced to delivery points.

Under the previous plan, the host zone and other non-point of delivery zones for wind resources were allocated a disproportionate share of the costs of transmission when the load being served was outside the wind resource’s host zone, according to the power pool.

But under the new arrangement, transmission costs for wind resources located in the same zone as a transmission customer are allocated the same as for a non-wind resource: 33 percent on a region-wide basis and 67 percent among zones based on each zone’s share of the incremental megawatt-mile benefit.

Conversely, two-thirds of the costs of transmission for wind resources located in different zones than the transmission customer will be allocated to the SPP region, with one-third assigned to the transmission customer.

The power pool serves portions of Arkansas, Kansas, Louisiana, Missouri, Nebraska, New Mexico, Oklahoma and Texas.

FERC’s order gave the RTO one year to evaluate the integration of wind generating facilities into the system and report its findings to the commission.

NRECA has recommended that FERC take a balanced approach to this regulation.

Such an approach would enable the development of wind resources without threatening safety, reliability or power quality on co-ops’ systems and without shifting costs or risks to other consumers, the association said.

Tags: Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, Regional Transmission Organizations, Transmission and Distribution, Wind Energy