COLLABORATION IN THE 1990S AND EARLY 2000S Moving towards the modern era, following the Energy Policy Act of 1992, which significantly advanced the objective of competitive generation markets, the Commission began a series of initiatives to increase transmission owner collaboration and coordination. [...] 888 in 1996, arguably the most significant rule in the agency’s history, was “designed to remove impediments to competition in the wholesale bulk power marketplace and to bring more efficient, lower cost power to the Nation’s electricity consumers.”31 The Order explained the distinction between the competitive generation sector and the regulated transmission sector: “[t]he electric industry faced. [...] The development, completed in the 1980s, included upgrading the existing transmission to 500 kV and connecting the generation to Bonneville Power Administration’s (BPA) system to allow delivery of power to the Pacific Northwest. [...] Pursuant to Attachment O of SPP’s Regional Tariff, a portfolio of projects is “balanced” when for each zone within SPP, the sum of the benefits of the potential Balanced Portfolio are equal to or exceed the sum of the costs.65 SPP’s tariff allows for the adjustment of revenue requirements to achieve balance for the portfolio. To begin the process, projects for evaluation were initially identified. [...] The utilities formed the CAPX group in 2004 as a “joint initiative to upgrade and expand the transmission grid in the Upper Midwest, meet the growing demand for electricity, support job and population growth, and increase access to renewable energy sources.”74 Beyond the recognition of need, the utilities also understood that it was more efficient to jointly plan and develop the projects.
- Pages
- 58
- Published in
- United States of America
