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FERC Filings

MOTION TO INTERVENE AND PROTEST OF ELECTRIC POWER SUPPLY ASSOCIATION -Southwest Power Pool, Inc. - Docket No. RT01-34-000

E. The RTO Proposal Violates Order No. 2000’s Rule with Respect to the Transmission Owner’s Control over Rate Methodology

Order No. 2000 provides that “RTOs, in order to ensure their independence from market participants, must have the independent and exclusive right to make Section 205 filings that apply to the rates, terms and conditions of transmission services over the facilities operated by the RTO.” Transmission owners may retain the right to make Section 205 filings. However, these filings are limited to the level of the revenue requirement that the transmission owners receive from the RTO and that the RTO, in turn, will collect from the transmission customers through its rates.
Thus, the transmission owners may have on file a tariff that assures their recovery of transmission revenues from the RTO and, while they may be affecting the level of the RTO’s revenue requirement, they will not be permitted to make Section 205 filings for RTO services to transmission customers and will not interfere with the independence of the RTO to file proposed changes to the open access tariff.
SPP’s tariff filing does not clearly limit the RTO’s Section 205 filings as required by Order No. 2000. Section 3.10 of the proposed RTO Membership Agreement provides:
Each transmission owner shall possess the unilateral right to file with FERC to change the rates or rate structure for transmission service over its Tariff Facilities and to submit proposals or filings governing new construction with FERC. No SPP approval is required for such filings though the Transmission Owner shall notify SPP in advance of the filing of its intention to submit a filing with FERC and provide SPP with a copy of the filing.
This goes beyond the clear boundaries of Section 205 rate authority for individual transmission owners drawn by the Commission in Order No. 2000. The Commission must require SPP to rewrite this portion of the membership agreement and limit the individual transmission owners’ right to make Section 205 filings. Such filings can only set the transmission owners’ revenue requirement; they cannot change rate design or establish a new rate structure.
<sup></sup> Order No. 2000 at 31,075.
Id. at 31,076.