HomeMy WebLinkAbout11 FERC and Transmission Issues
TDPUD Monthly Activity Report
April 15, 1999
To: Board of Directors
From: Stephen Hollabaugh, Power Supply Engineer
Subject: Monthly staff report – April 1999
AGENDA #11
FERC, & Transmission Issues
On April 14,1999 FERC approved the Order Approving the Merger of Sierra Pacific Power Co.
and Nevada Power. The Merger is conditioned upon divestiture of all generation owned by the
companies and upon joining an ISO within three years. The commission dismissed the concerns
expressed in the intervenors because:
Generation divestiture will moot any concerns regarding the Applicants’ analysis….. As a
result, we believe that the proposed merger would not adversely affect competition, and
we approve it, based on our understanding that the Applicants will divest their generation
as required by the Nevada Commission.
Sierra has also filed a transmission tariff rate change that adds the Alturas transmission line into
the revenue requirements and also included a transmission plant refunctionalization to
distribution. Truckee Donner PUD will be filing an intervention and protest of the revised
transmission tariffs on April 19,1999.
FERC also, on April 14, 1999, approved the settlement agreement between Truckee Donner
PUD and Sierra Pacific (Docket Nos. ER97-3593-000 and ER97-4462-000).
In very simplified form, the settlement in the dockets identified provides that:
1. Capacity use until Alturas was energized, although the settlement on how that was
in fact priced gave Truckee Donner much of the benefit of the transaction.
2. Truckee Donner would be able to import enough off-system power to meet its full
load when the Alturas line was energized, on the theory that the addition of Alturas
at least solved the claimed problems of SPP until February 28, 2001, with the issue
as to what happened after that date to be postponed pending the results of the IRP
process t Truckee Donner would be limited to a very small amount of \[official\] import
o see whether there even was a real problem,
3. The PUCN IRP process for SPP’s transmission additions would go forward, with an
obligation to complete it and report to FERC on the results,
4. If the IRP did not provide for sufficient import capacity to meet both SPP’s and
TDPUD’s needs for the period after February 28, 2001, any party could re-open the
existing docket and litigate the issue of allocation, or
5. If the IRP results did provide for sufficient import capacity for both SPP and TDPUD,
SPP would have to make one or more filings at FERC, by July 15, 1999, to resolve
any remaining issues about cost responsibility and/or allocation of import capacity,
and
6. SPP is also required to file by July 15, 1999 a network service agreement with
TDPUD that is consistent with the IRP and provides for TDPUD to get its requested
network service, subject to the outcome of the proceeding initiated by that filing.
The PUCN recently filed an order (albeit later than provided for) that completes step 3.
I will try to keep you up to date as more information on these subjects becomes available.
The Alturas transmission line has been energized. This allows us to serve our full load from
Idaho per our settlement at FERC with Sierra. The commercial rating for the Alturas line is in a
battle at FERC between some California utilities such as San Diego vs. Sierra Pacific and BPA.
The District has filed a vanilla intervention to protect our interest if this goes to hearing at FERC.
Currently since the Alturas line in energized, some of our settlement issues are met allowing us
to utilize the transmission required to serve our load. FERC has set this matter to a settlement
hearing. We are keeping up on this subject.
Nevada Power and Sierra Pacific are proposing an ISA (Independent System Administrator) as
part of the Nevada Restructuring effort. I am following this closely to make sure what are
proposed does not adversely effecting the District.
Western Area Power Administration 2004 Marketing Plan
We filed a letter with Western concerning their 2004 Marketing Plan and input on the impact of
electric utility industry restructuring. In our letter, we brought up that the District had an
allocation from Western in the past but was not able to receive the power because of
transmission. We pointed out that a lot had changed since the allocation was withdrawn and
noted the District was requesting a new allocation from Western. I will keep watching this to see
if we can receive an economic power allocation from Western in the future.
GIS Strategic Plan Issue (Graphical Information System)
I will be putting together a mapping conversion data packet for CADP. CADP has sent me this
conversion packet to help analyze the conversion requirements for our mapping.