SPP Board Approves Expedited Generation Interconnection Process to Meet Regional Resource Adequacy

At its May 6 meeting, the Southwest Power Pool (SPP) Board of Directors took action to preserve regional grid reliability by approving SPP’s proposed Expedited Resource Adequacy Study (ERAS). SPP developed ERAS in collaboration with its stakeholders and in response to an imminent and growing need to bring new generating resources online before the region’s generating capacity is outpaced by its electricity needs. ERAS is a one-time, expedited study process designed to significantly accelerate the addition of new generating resources to the grid.

Pending final approval by the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC), the ERAS process establishes a parallel path to SPP’s traditional generator interconnection (GI) study queue that will allow entities who are responsible for meeting consumers’ electricity demand to bring new generating resources online faster than ever before. The innovative process is available only to generation projects that are nominated by qualified load responsible entities (LRE) and that meet clearly defined thresholds related to near-term resource adequacy needs.

SPP developed the ERAS process to mitigate reliability risks associated with rapidly increasing load forecasts, a backlog of projects in the existing GI queue and the accelerating pace of generator retirements. While ERAS is a temporary solution, it will provide a critical bridge between immediate needs and longer-term relief expected from SPP’s Consolidated Planning Process (CPP), a separate initiative to streamline complex and time-intensive planning processes that have slowed interconnection requests over the last decade.

“ERAS offers utilities who are responsible for keeping the lights on a clearly defined and impactful opportunity to address real and immediate needs,” said SPP President and CEO Lanny Nickell. “It’s not a replacement for broader interconnection reforms, but this complementary effort will ensure reliability isn’t compromised during a transitional period while we work to implement more permanent solutions.”

Key elements of the ERAS process include:

• Eligibility is limited to new generation nominated by LREs, of a maximum capacity set by a formula using each LRE’s accredited capacity and the gap between its capacity and seasonal reserve requirements, up to a calculated ceiling.
  
• Projects must be capable of reaching commercial operation within five years of executing a generation interconnection agreement.
  
• The one-time process will run separately from SPP’s standard GI queue.
  
• Projects that were submitted for consideration in SPP’s most recent batch of GI study requests will be given the option to transfer their submissions to the ERAS queue.
  

The ERAS proposal received broad support from SPP’s stakeholders, though some raised concerns that offering certain projects an expedited path to interconnection may conflict with SPP’s requirement to treat all customers in a non-discriminatory manner. SPP remains committed to principles of independence, fairness and equity, and its standard processes will continue to ensure interconnection requests are studied fairly, efficiently and with the reliability and affordability of the regional grid as paramount considerations.

“SPP is committed to evolving its processes to better serve our members and the millions who rely on them for reliable power,” said Nickell. “ERAS is one part of that evolution — an innovative solution that will mitigate acute reliability risks without disrupting SPP’s other processes or ongoing GI queue reforms — and it comes just in time to meet the reliability needs of a quickly changing grid.”

Having gained approval from its independent board May 6, SPP will next file enabling amendments to its governing documents for FERC’s consideration later in May. Upon approval by FERC, SPP staff will notify LREs of the process to submit projects for inclusion in the ERAS process as early as August, with rights to interconnect being granted as early as April 2026.

_{Source: Southwest Power Pool}

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