EPSA Requests FERC Tech Conference Regarding Delays, Errors Recorded by ICT Annual Report

February 21, 2008 // Published as a news service by IHS

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The Electric Power Supply Association (EPSA) filed comments calling for a Federal Electric Regulatory Commission (FERC) technical conference to examine persistent, troubling delays and errors recorded by the Southwest Power Pool as the Independent Coordinator of Transmission (ICT) in its annual performance report on the Entergy transmission system operations.

The Entergy transmission system serves 2.7 million customers in four states and includes 15,500 miles of high-voltage transmission lines to which power generators require access.

"Entergy's customers can only obtain the benefits of competitive electricity supplies if its transmission system keeps pace with load growth and if all suppliers have non-discriminatory access to that system," said EPSA President and CEO John E. Shelk.

"Unfortunately, suppliers not affiliated with Entergy continue to be denied timely and adequate transmission access despite federal open access rules. As a result, cleaner, more efficient competitive power plants are idle or under-utilized, while Entergy gives an undue preference to its own, older plants.

"This hurts the environment while passing on higher natural gas costs to their electricity customers and other natural gas users." As noted in Lafayette (LA) Utilities Systems filing, the ICT report included five examples of Generator Interconnection Service Requests that encountered processing delays of 10 months and beyond, said EPSA.

EPSA comments on the need to address the Entergy transmission problems echo similar concerns expressed by the Lafayette Utilities System and the Municipal Energy Agency of Mississippi (L-M Municipals) and Occidental Chemical Corporation. EPSA joins these major customers of the Entergy system in urging the FERC to convene a technical conference to assess the sufficiency of ICT resources to fulfill its responsibilities over the Entergy region.

"EPSA shares a common interest with public power and industrial users in this case. We join them in saying enough is enough. If the ICT cannot resolve the issues related to current operating and planning practices that impair competition and undercut reliability, efforts that are still under development such as the Weekly Procurement Process will likely stall - or only increase the number of errors reported," Shelk said. "If the ICT process cannot be made to work soon, other options will need to be explored."

Source: Electric Power Supply Association (EPSA).