Photo by Rob Meyers, The Dalles
The NorthernGrid regional planning association reached an essential milestone April 1 when the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission accepted tariff modifications filed by participating investor owned utilities. NorthernGrid was formed last October and has been steadily preparing to coordinate regional planning across the Pacific Northwest and intermountain states.
“We are pleased to see NorthernGrid in operation. Pulling together more transmission owners and operators to coordinate their respective transmission planning efforts is a big plus,” said Jeff Cook, BPA vice president of Transmission Planning and Asset Management. “We expect this larger footprint with more entities to produce planning and financial efficiencies for NorthernGrid participants, in addition to broader benefits that may be experienced across the western interconnection. We believe the new single planning region may help to better meet public policy and economic objectives, including prospective non-wire alternatives evaluation.”
Over the past several years, the majority of members of ColumbiaGrid and Northern Tier Transmission Group worked together to scope and develop a new, single regional planning organization for participating Northwest transmission providers, owners, operators and stakeholders. The result of that effort is NorthernGrid - a member association of FERC-jurisdictional utility companies, BPA, public utility districts and municipalities.
NorthernGrid’s formation is a key element of BPA’s strategic plan to meet transmission customer needs efficiently and responsibly through regional resource development and grid optimization across a broad spectrum of participants and a larger footprint.
BPA will propose amendments to its open access transmission tariff to reflect its participation in NorthernGrid as part of the TC-22 Tariff Proceeding. For more than 10 years, BPA has participated in coordinated regional transmission planning through its membership in ColumbiaGrid. BPA expects to replace the ColumbiaGrid regional process in its tariff with the NorthernGrid process.
Last December, the NorthernGrid members engaged the Northwest Power Pool to manage the planning processes and perform planning studies. Since that time, the NorthernGrid website has been developed and committees organized in preparation for the affirmative FERC order. For more information, see www.northerngrid.net.