SPP Planning: It’s as if Clean Lines don’t exist!
July 28th, 2015
As if they don’t exist? Yes, and that’s because they don’t. That’s because they’re transmission projects in their own minds, and not in reality.
What? SPP, the Southwest Power Pool, dissing Clean Line? See for yourself! It’s as simple as doing a simple search of the SPP planning reports.
We know, Clean Line is all about Clean Line, but there’s a significant disconnect between what Clean Line is saying about SPP, claiming “approval” of its projects and incorporation of those projects into SPP’s plans, and the reality of what shows up in those plans. Or more correctly, what DOESN’T show up in those plans:
CLEAN LINE IS ABSENT!
PLAINS & EASTERN CLEAN LINE IS ABSENT!
GRAIN BELT EXPRESS CLEAN LINE IS ABSENT!
Whadda ya mean? Well, on November 19, 2012, Plains & Eastern Clean Line sent out this press release:
SPP Transmission Working Group approves Plains & Eastern Clean Line reliability studies
This press release was EVERYWHERE, with Clean Line jubilant, jumping up and down, so excited and so elated, and stated that:
The Southwest Power Pool’s (SPP) Transmission Working Group today unanimously passed a motion accepting that the Plains & Eastern Clean Line reliability studies completed to date have met the coordinated planning requirements.
And went on to say (emphasis added) that:
Clean Line is also pleased to announce that it recently submitted the Plains & Eastern Clean Line and Grain Belt Express Clean Line projects, both +/- 600 kV high voltage direct current transmission projects capable of transmitting 3,500 MW from the SPP footprint to external-to-SPP sinks, in each of the ITP20 Futures 1 through 4. The objective of ITP20 is to develop an EHV backbone (345 kV and above) transmission plan for a 20-year horizon. The assessment will identify a robust transmission plan that is capable of reliably and economically providing deliverability of energy to the SPP market while enabling policy initiatives. The current ITP20 process is the second Integrated Transmission Planning Year 20 Assessment (ITP20). The assessment is conducted in accordance with the SPP Open Access Transmission Tariff (OATT) Attachment O, and the approved ITP Manual. The assessment begins in January 2012 and is scheduled to be finalized in July 2013.
Here’s that 2013 ITP 20:
2013 ITP20 Report – Southwest Power Pool
Now check out the map of their ITP20 projects in this report — do you see either the Plains & Eastern or Grain Belt mentioned above on this map:
Nope, neither do I. I did a search of the narrative, and “Clean Line” isn’t even mentioned once!
And there are no ITP20s after that 2013 one above, either HERE on the ITP Assessments page or HERE on the ITP20 Documents page!
Oh, OK, so what about the SPP Planning and SPP’s STEP (not unlike the MTEP and RTEP!):
2015_STEP_Report
Do a search — nada… so I tried a search on “transmission” and blew up the computer. So the search function works and in this report also, there’s no mention of Clean Line whatsoever, be it Plains & Eastern Clean Line or Grain Belt Clean Line or just plain ol’ Clean Line.
And there’s nothing here either:
It’s only in the 2015 ITP10 SCOPE that there’s any mention of “Clean Line” and it’s only the Plains & Eastern Clean Line, not both, AND it’s only for sensitivity analysis. This is not being included as a project, contemplated or promoted.
And in the resulting 2015 ITP10? A mention in the list of sensitivities, and then three mentions on p. 103:
And in the SPP 2015 Final Near Term Assessment, not a mention:
When it comes to the scope of their next ITP10, Clean Line disappears, not even one mention, nada, again, not even an honorable mention as a “sensitivity” in the scope:
Meanwhile, Illinois is holding “public hearings” that are very limited for what a large project this is, and very odd, considering that there are pending Motions for Reconsideration in this docket (Grain Belt Express Docket #15-0277 online at ICC’s e-docket system at www.icc.illinois.gov).
Public hearings tonight and tomorrow in Illinois:
I’d hope that Illinois, Missouri, Texas, Oklahoma, Arkansas and Tennessee pay attention to this lack of incorporation of any Clean Line project into SPP Planning!
Oh, and of course, the DOE should be paying attention! Hey Office of Electric Deliverability and Energy Reliability, are you paying attention?
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