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FERC to hold technical conference on grid operator interconnection coordination

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FERC to hold technical conference on grid operator interconnection coordination

Finding that EDF Renewable Energy has "raised legitimate issues" about how the Midcontinent ISO, Southwest Power Pool and PJM Interconnection coordinate their interconnection procedures with those of neighboring systems, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission directed agency staff to hold a technical conference to address those issues.

The technical conference (FERC docket AD18-8), which staff concurrently scheduled for April 3-4 at the agency's headquarters in Washington, D.C., also will look at concerns about "affected system" coordination raised in response to an ongoing FERC notice of proposed rulemaking. That proceeding is aimed at potentially making major changes to the commission's large generator interconnection procedures.

"We find that holding a joint technical conference on affected systems issues identified both in this complaint and in the generator interconnection NOPR will offer the commission and interested parties the opportunity to consider specific reforms in MISO, SPP, and PJM at the same time as more generic reforms," FERC said.

EDF's October 2017 complaint (EL18-26) asked FERC to direct the three regional transmission organizations to provide more details on how and when an interconnecting project's impact on neighboring grid operators' systems is determined.

According to that filing, the tariffs and joint operating agreements, or JOAs, of MISO, PJM and SPP do not contain such details, which developers need to adequately assess the commercial viability of planned generation projects. Those documents merely "identify the requirement for the host and neighboring RTOs to coordinate," EDF said, asserting that interconnection customers in those three regions "have no idea what 'coordination' means."

Meanwhile, FERC already had proposed (RM17-8) to revamp its existing policies regarding the interconnection of new generators larger than 20 MW, which were established in 2003, in order to "improve certainty, promote more informed interconnection, and enhance interconnection processes." The NOPR got mixed reviews from stakeholders, with some, including the Electric Power Supply Association and the PJM Power Providers Group, suggesting that FERC needs to do more to improve transmission providers' coordination with affected systems before a final rule is issued.

Ruling on the complaint, FERC found that EDF provided enough evidence to show that the lack of transparency and clarity with respect to the grid operators' affected systems coordination process may result in inappropriate network upgrade costs, hamper a developer's ability to accurately estimate the cost of interconnection service and delay interconnection study results. The commission also rejected arguments that the complaint is not ripe for review until a final rule is issued in the NOPR docket. EDF "raised legitimate issues specific to the MISO, SPP, and PJM tariffs and JOAs that were not raised in [that] proceeding," the commission said.

FERC set a refund effective date of Oct. 30, 2017, in the complaint docket.