posted on Wednesday, April 18, 2007 11:07 AM by Andrea Kells

ColumbiaGrid Planning Agreement Wins FERC Acceptance

ColumbiaGrid, a non-profit membership corporation formed in 2006 to improve the planning and operation of the Northwest transmission grid, has received FERC acceptance of  its Planning and Expansion Function Agreement (Agreement) with its members and with Snohomish County PUD, a non-member party to the agreement.  ColumbiaGrid's current members are Avista Corp. (Avista), Bonneville Power Authority (BPA), Chelan County PUD, Grant County PUD, Puget Sound Energy (Puget Sound), Seattle City Light and Tacoma Power.  Completion of the Agreement comes as good news to parties that have weathered several stymied efforts to create such an organization in the northwest region.  

The Agreement took effect April 4 and requires ColumbiaGrid to prepare a 10-year transmission plan for its footprint within 30 months and to update that plan biennially.  Based on evaluations of its members' transmission systems, the plan will recommend capacity increases, single-system projects, expanded scope projects and non-transmission alternatives (e.g., generation additions or demand management) to the region's interconnected transmission systems.  In addition, ColumbiaGrid will coordinate multi-system project planning and stakeholder participation in the planning process.  Finally, ColumbiaGrid will assume BPA's planning obligations to the Western Reliability Coordinating Council. 

Rejecting protests opposing the agreement, FERC noted its support for a planning process that includes both public and governmental transmission providers.  As suggested by the concurrences of Commissioners Moeller and Wellinghoff, who would have conditioned acceptance of the Agreement on acceptance of each member's Order No. 890 compliance filing, Columbia Grid’s planning process may raise unforeseen transmission planning issues as FERC implements its transmission planning authority and begins evaluating compliance filings.