Building for the Future Through Electric Regional Transmission Planning and Cost Allocation

<RULE> DEPARTMENT OF ENERGY <SUBAGY>Federal Energy Regulatory Commission</SUBAGY> <CFR>18 CFR Part 35</CFR> <DEPDOC>[Docket No. RM21-17-003; Order No.1920-B]</DEPDOC> <SUBJECT>Building for the Future Through Electric Regional Transmission Planning and Cost Allocation</SUBJECT> <HD SOURCE="HED">AGENCY:</HD> Federal Energy Regulatory Commission. <HD SOURCE="HED">ACTION:</HD> Order on rehearing and clarification. <SUM> <HD SOURCE="HED">SUMMARY:</HD> In this order, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission addresses arguments raised on rehearing, grants clarification, in part, and denies clarification, in part, of Order No. 1920-A, which addressed arguments raised on rehearing of, set aside, in part, and clarified Order No. 1920. Order No. 1920 required transmission providers, <E T="03">inter alia,</E> to conduct Long-Term Regional Transmission Planning to ensure the identification, evaluation, and selection, as well as the allocation of the costs, of more efficient or cost-effective regional transmission solutions to address Long-Term Transmission Needs. </SUM> <EFFDATE> <HD SOURCE="HED">DATES:</HD> The effective date of the document published on December 6, 2024 (89 FR 97174), is confirmed: January 6, 2025. </EFFDATE> <FURINF> <HD SOURCE="HED">FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT:</HD> <FP SOURCE="FP-1"> Patrick T. Metz (Legal Information), Office of the General Counsel, 888 First Street NE, Washington, DC 20426, (202) 502-8197, <E T="03">patrick.metz@ferc.gov</E> </FP> <FP SOURCE="FP-1"> Michael Kellermann (Legal Information), Office of the General Counsel, 888 First Street NE, Washington, DC 20426, (202) 502-8491, <E T="03">michael.kellermann@ferc.gov</E> </FP> <FP SOURCE="FP-1"> David Borden (Technical Information), Office of Energy Policy and Innovation, 888 First Street NE, Washington, DC 20426, (202) 502-8734, <E T="03">david.borden@ferc.gov</E> </FP> <FP SOURCE="FP-1"> Noah Lichtenstein (Technical Information), Office of Energy Market Regulation, 888 First Street NE, Washington, DC 20426, (202) 502-8696, <E T="03">noah.lichtenstein@ferc.gov</E> </FP> </FURINF> <SUPLINF> <HD SOURCE="HED">SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:</HD> <HD SOURCE="HD1">Table of Contents</HD> <EXTRACT> <GPOTABLE COLS="2" OPTS="L0,tp0,g1,t1,i1" CDEF="s200,9"> <TTITLE> </TTITLE> <CHED H="1"> </CHED> <CHED H="1"> Paragraph Nos. </CHED> <ROW> <ENT I="01">I. Introduction</ENT> <ENT>1.</ENT> </ROW> <ROW> <ENT I="01">II. Long-Term Regional Transmission Planning</ENT> <ENT>6.</ENT> </ROW> <ROW> <ENT I="03">A. Planning for the Long-Term Transmission Needs of Unenrolled Non-Jurisdictional Transmission Providers</ENT> <ENT>6.</ENT> </ROW> <ROW> <ENT I="05">1. Order Nos. 1920 and 1920-A</ENT> <ENT>6.</ENT> </ROW> <ROW> <ENT I="05">2. Rehearing Requests</ENT> <ENT>9.</ENT> </ROW> <ROW> <ENT I="05">3. Commission Determination</ENT> <ENT>21.</ENT> </ROW> <ROW> <ENT I="01">III. Regional Transmission Cost Allocation</ENT> <ENT>23.</ENT> </ROW> <ROW> <ENT I="03">A. Requirements Concerning Relevant State Entities' Agreed-Upon Cost Allocation Methods</ENT> <ENT>23.</ENT> </ROW> <ROW> <ENT I="05">1. Order Nos. 1920 and 1920-A</ENT> <ENT>23.</ENT> </ROW> <ROW> <ENT I="05">2. Challenges to Order No. 1920-A</ENT> <ENT>30.</ENT> </ROW> <ROW> <ENT I="03">B. Consultation With Relevant State Entities After the Engagement Period</ENT> <ENT>105.</ENT> </ROW> <ROW> <ENT I="05">1. Order Nos. 1920 and 1920-A</ENT> <ENT>105.</ENT> </ROW> <ROW> <ENT I="05">2. Challenges to Order No. 1920-A</ENT> <ENT>108.</ENT> </ROW> <ROW> <ENT I="03">C. Definition of Relevant State Entities</ENT> <ENT>131.</ENT> </ROW> <ROW> <ENT I="05">1. Order Nos. 1920 and 1920-A</ENT> <ENT>131.</ENT> </ROW> <ROW> <ENT I="05">2. Rehearing Requests</ENT> <ENT>134.</ENT> </ROW> <ROW> <ENT I="05">3. Commission Determination</ENT> <ENT>138.</ENT> </ROW> <ROW> <ENT I="03">D. Other Cost Allocation Issues</ENT> <ENT>143.</ENT> </ROW> <ROW> <ENT I="05">1. Order Nos. 1920 and 1920-A</ENT> <ENT>143.</ENT> </ROW> <ROW> <ENT I="05">2. Rehearing Requests</ENT> <ENT>148.</ENT> </ROW> <ROW> <ENT I="05">3. Commission Determination</ENT> <ENT>152.</ENT> </ROW> <ROW> <ENT I="01">IV. Document Availability</ENT> <ENT>155.</ENT> </ROW> <ROW> <ENT I="01">V. Effective Date</ENT> <ENT>158.</ENT> </ROW> </GPOTABLE> </EXTRACT> <HD SOURCE="HD1">I. Introduction</HD> 1. In Order No. 1920, <SU>1</SU> <FTREF/> the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (Commission) revised the <E T="03">pro forma</E> Open Access Transmission Tariff (OATT) to adopt reforms to its existing electric transmission planning and cost allocation requirements pursuant to section 206 of the Federal Power Act (FPA). <SU>2</SU> <FTREF/> The Commission found that existing regional transmission planning and cost allocation processes are unjust, unreasonable, and unduly discriminatory or preferential because, <E T="03">inter alia,</E> the Commission's existing transmission planning and cost allocation requirements do not require transmission providers  <SU>3</SU> <FTREF/> to: (1) perform a sufficiently long-term assessment of transmission needs that identifies Long-Term Transmission Needs;  <SU>4</SU> <FTREF/> (2) adequately account on a forward-looking basis for known determinants of Long-Term Transmission Needs; and (3) consider the broader set of benefits of regional transmission facilities planned to meet those Long-Term Transmission Needs. <SU>5</SU> <FTREF/> Building on Order Nos. 890  Order No. 1920 addresses these deficiencies by establishing requirements to ensure that Commission-jurisdictional rates remain just and reasonable and not unduly discriminatory or preferential, including, <E T="03">inter alia,</E> a requirement that transmission providers in each transmission planning region participate in a regional transmission planning process that includes Long-Term Regional Transmission Planning, <SU>8</SU> <FTREF/> which will ensure the identification, evaluation, and selection of more efficient or cost-effective regional transmission facilities to address Long-Term Transmission Needs, as well as the just and reasonable allocation of the costs of those facilities. <SU>9</SU> <FTREF/> <FTNT> <SU>1</SU>   <E T="03">Bldg. for the Future Through Elec. Reg'l Transmission Plan. & Cost Allocation,</E> Order No. 1920, 89 FR 49280 (June 11, 2024), 187 FERC ¶ 61,068, <E T="03">order on reh'g & clarification,</E> Order No. 1920-A, 89 FR 97174 (Dec. 6, 2024), 189 FERC ¶ 61,126 (2024). </FTNT> <FTNT> <SU>2</SU>  16 U.S.C. 824e. </FTNT> <FTNT> <SU>3</SU>  FPA Section 201(e), 16 U.S.C. 824(e), defines “public utility” to mean “any person who owns or operates facilities subject to the jurisdiction of the Commission under this subchapter.” As stated in the Order No. 888 <E T="03">pro forma</E> OATT, “transmission provider” is a “public utility (or its Designated Agent) that owns, controls, or operates facilities used for the transmission of electric energy in interstate commerce and provides transmission service under the Tariff.” <E T="03">Promoting Wholesale Competition Through Open Access Non-Discriminatory Transmission Servs. by Pub. Utils.; Recovery of Stranded Costs by Pub. Utils. & Transmitting Utils.,</E> Order No. 888, 61 FR 21540 (May 10, 1996), FERC Stats. & Regs. ¶ 31,036 (1996) (cross-referenced at 75 FERC ¶ 61,080), <E T="03">order on reh'g,</E> Order No. 888-A, 62 FR 12274 (Mar. 14, 1997), FERC Stats. & Regs. ¶ 31,048 (cross-referenced at 78 FERC ¶ 61,220), <E T="03">order on reh'g,</E> Order No. 888-B, 81 FERC ¶ 61,248 (1997), <E T="03">order on reh'g,</E> Order No. 888-C, 82 FERC ¶ 61,046 (1998), <E T="03">aff'd in relevant part sub nom. Transmission Access Pol'y Study Grp.</E> v. <E T="03">FERC,</E> 225 F.3d 667 (D.C. Cir. 2000), <E T="03">aff'd sub nom. N. Y.</E> v. <E T="03">FERC,</E> 535 U.S. 1 (2002); <E T="03">pro forma</E> OATT section I.1 (Definitions). The term “transmission provider” includes a public utility transmission owner when the transmission owner is separate from the transmission provider, as is the case in regional transmission organizations (RTO) and independent system operators (ISO). </FTNT> <FTNT> <SU>4</SU>  For purposes of Order No. 1920, Long-Term Transmission Needs are transmission needs identified through Long-Term Regional Transmission Planning by, among other things and as discussed in Order Nos. 1920 and 1920-A, running scenarios and considering the enumerated categories of factors. Order No. 1920, 187 FERC ¶ 61,068 at P 299; Order No. 1920-A, 189 FERC ¶ 61,126 at P 20 n.16. </FTNT> <FTNT> <SU>5</SU>  Order No. 1920, 187 FERC ¶ 61,068 at P 1. </FTNT> <FTNT> <SU>6</SU>   <E T="03">Preventing Undue Discrimination & Preference in Transmission Serv.,</E> Order No. 890, 72 FR 12266 (Mar. 15, 2007), 118 FERC ¶ 61,119 (2007), <E T="03">order on reh'g,</E> Order No. 890-A, 73 FR 2984 (Jan. 16, 2008), FERC Stats. & Regs. ¶ 31,261 (2007) (cross-referenced at 118 FERC ¶ 61,119), <E T="03">order on reh'g and clarification,</E> Order No. 890-B, 73 FR 39092 (July 8, 2008), 123 FERC ¶ 61,299 (2008), <E T="03">order on reh'g,</E> Order No. 890-C, 74 FR 12540 (Mar. 25, 2009), 126 FERC ¶ 61,228 (2009), <E T="03">order on clarification,</E> Order No. 890-D, 74 FR 61511 (Nov. 25, 2009), 129 FERC ¶ 61,126 (2009). </FTNT> <FTNT> <SU>7</SU>   <E T="03">Transmission Plan. & Cost Allocation by Transmission Owning & Operating Pub. Utils.,</E> Order No. 1000, 76 FR 49842 (Aug. 11, 2011), 136 FERC ¶ 61,051 (2011), Order No. 1000-A, 77 FR 32184 (May 31, 2012), 139 FERC ¶ 61,132 (2012), <E T="03">order on reh'g & clarification,</E> Order No. 1000-B, 141 FERC ¶ 61,044 (2012), <E T="03">aff'd sub nom. S.C. Pub. Serv. Auth.</E> v. <E T="03" ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ Preview showing 10k of 352k characters. Full document text is stored and available for version comparison. ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━