On July 25, the SPP issued a press release publicly announcing that the SPP and NERC have agreed to terminate their Electric Reliability Organization delegation agreement. Action had been taken by SPP’s Board of Directors on Sunday, July 23rd. This move will dissolve the SPP Regional Entity, one of NERC’s eight delegated Regional Entities responsible for compliance and enforcement for the Reliability Standards promulgated under Section 215 of the Federal Power Act. This termination and transition to a new Regional Entity (or Entities) is contemplated to be complete by the end of 2018.
A copy of SPP’s press release can be found here.
Nick Brown, CEO of SPP stated that the goal is to focus on strategic objectives, including Western expansion, wholesale market operations and transmission planning of the SPP RTO. SPP was the only remaining organization to operate as both an RTO and as a Regional Entity. As such, it could both recommend fines and pay fines, raising concerns about independence.
The SPP Regional Entity utilizes 24 of SPP’s employees and has 120 entities under its compliance monitoring and enforcement program. It is unclear at present which of the other Regional Entities these companies will be transferred. It is quite possible that the answer will vary within the SPP footprint.
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