Interconnection for Renewables

1
Interconnection for Renewables

• Geothermal Resources Council Annual Meeting
• Sparks, Nevada, October 2, 2007
• By Brian Whalen - Manager Transmission Planning

2
Important Terms

• FERC
• OATT
• OASIS
• Order 2003
• LGIA
• SGIA
• Interconnection Point
• Network Upgrade
• Direct Assigned Facility
• Transmission Credit

• PUCN
• At or Beyond
• RPS
• SIS
• Federal Power Act
• WECC
• NERC
• SCADA

3
Important FERC Policies

• Tennessee - 90 FERC 61,238
• Identified interconnection as OATT service
• Consumers - 95 FERC 61,233
• Took Stability and Short Circuit out of direct
  assignment
• Entergy - 98 FERC 61,014
• Provided basis for At or Beyond policy
• Nevada Power vs. FERC DC Circuit Court of
  Appeals (twice)
• Legally tested At or Beyond we lost
• Order 2003 (A, B, C, )
• Established interconnection policies and pricing

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Issues

• Who Pays?
• Who Rules?
• Who Owns?
• Who Cares?

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Who Pays

• The end use customer always pays
• All the debate on funding is centered on
  confusion of who will initially pay for
  facilities.
• All parties recover costs through energy price,
  refunds or credits, or transmission rates.
• Up front funding of Network Upgrades by
  interconnecting party is capital intensive but
  subject to refund or credit with interest.

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Who Rules

• FERC has jurisdiction over interstate
  transmission, including interconnection
• PUCN has jurisdiction over buy side decisions and
  siting
• Local governments have SUP/Building Permit
  requirements
• WECC/NERC have reliability requirements
• Some of these tasks are opposed
• For example
• PUCN wants minimal transmission costs in native
  rates
• FERC wants maximum resources developed and is
  eager to assist via transmission incentives
• Local municipalities want the neighborhood
  preserved
• WECC/NERC want reliability maximized

7
Who Owns

• Utility owns everything from the interconnection
  point into the system.
• Interconnecting customer owns line from
  substation to their plant.
• Utility will own metering and SCADA at plant
• The Utility substation fence is usually thought
  of as the demarcation point

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Who Cares

• US Congress
• State Legislature
• State Energy Office (Governor)
• FERC
• PUCN
• Utility
• Developer
• WECC
• NERC
• Special interests (Sierra Club, AWEA, GRC, )
• Government Agencies (BLM, EPA, USFS, )
• Concerned citizens
• In short, everybody

9
Going Forward

• Interconnection policies are well established.
  The major remaining obstacle is finding cost
  effective sites - relative to transmission
  (existing or future) for development. With
  future transmission projects this means risk.
  Who bears that risk is the BIG question.
• Transmission expansion
• SPPC corridor study
• DOE corridor studies
• Nevada Renewable Energy Transmission Access
  Advisory Committee

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Transmission Expansion

• Multitude of major trans-regional projects
  proposed
• Most are anchored by coal
• Most are increasingly in doubt
• Several are critically needed
• NPC/SPPC has built 1 billion worth of
  transmission in the last 10 years including
• Alturas 345
• Crystal 500
• Falcon 345
• Centennial 500
• NPC/SPPC has proposed in IRPs another 1 billion
  worth of transmission in the next 10 years
  including
• EN-ti 500
• Ft Sage 345
• Emma 345
• Sunrise 500

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SPPC Corridor Study

• SPPC IRP filing
• Requested 4 million dollars to do routing and
  siting studies on several potential corridors.
  Corridors are likely future transmission for
  renewables.

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DOE Corridor Studies

• EPaAct2005 established 2 process
• Section 368 provided for identification and a
  PEIS on strategic transmission corridors on
  federal land in the west
• Section 1221 provided for the identification of
  national interest transmission corridors to be
  used under FERCs new backstop siting authority
• Both have become politically entangled and have
  been delayed significantly

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Nevada Energy Office

• Nevada Renewable Energy Transmission Access
  Advisory Committee
• Establishing multi-resource mapping system to aid
  in renewable development
• Includes exclusionary areas and resource
  potentials

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Questions