NWE Local Transmission Planning Calendar of Events

Update: 10-25-17

Calendar and Study Cycles

NWE Local Transmission Planning

Calendar

2017

Study Cycle Coordination

2016 – 2017 Local Transmission Plan Study Cycle

Economic Study Cycle

2016

2017

FERC Order 1000: Transmission Planning and Cost Allocation by Transmission Owning and Operating Public Utilities

2017

2016

2015

2014

FERC Order 890 Attachment K Development and Posting

2016

2015

NTTG

WECC

Calendar

2017

March 15, 2017: Transmission Advisory Committee (TRANSAC) – Meeting
June 07, 2017: Transmission Advisory Committee (TRANSAC) – Meeting
September 13, 2017: Transmission Advisory Committee (TRANSAC) – Meeting
October 2, 2017: Electric Transmission Planning Public Meeting-Butte
October 9, 2017: Electric Transmission Planning Public Meeting-Helena
December 13, 2017: Transmission Advisory Committee (TRANSAC) – Meeting

TENTATIVE Future Meetings: The Transmission Advisory Committee (TRANSAC) meetings will be held as needed. Meetings will begin at 9:30 a.m. and last no later than 12:00 p.m. The following is the projected schedule and subject to change (see the Study Cycle Coordination table for suggested agenda topics).

Study Cycle Coordination

2016 – 2017 Local Transmission Plan Study Cycle

Study Cycle: 8 Quarters starting in January 2016

(See the following Study Cycle Coordination Table for further detail)

January - March 2016 (Quarter #1): Goal and Scenario Definitions
March - June 2016 (Quarter #2): Build Base Cases
June – October 2016 (Quarter #3): Conduct Technical studies for the existing system
October – December 2016 (Quarter #4): Build mitigation change cases
December 2016 – March 2017 (Quarter #5): Conduct study with mitigation
March 2017 (Quarter #5): Develop uncertainty cases
April – June 2017 (Quarter #6): Conduct uncertainty analysis
March 2016 – June 2017 (Quarters #2 – #6): Consider Prior and Current year Economic Study Results
July – September 2017 (Quarter #7): Decision
October – December 2017 (Quarter #8): Reporting

Table 1: Study Cycle Coordination Table

A full description of the NWE Local Transmission Planning cycle and Timeline Business Practice is available on NWE’s OASIS website:

Economic Study Cycle

Study Cycle – 12 Months Starting in January

Request Window: January – February annually

2016

January-February 2016: Receive Requests
Posted submittal reminder on deadlines
Deadline to submit an Economic Study request was February 29th, NWE did not receiveany Economic Study requests forthe 2016 cycle.

2017

January-February 2017: Receive Requests
Posted submittal reminder on deadlines
Deadline to submit an Economic Study request was February 28th, NWE did not receive any Economic Study requests for the 2017 cycle.

The process for Economic Planning Studies is described in the Attachment K Business Practice on the NWE OASIS website:

FERC Order 1000: Transmission Planning and Cost Allocation by Transmission Owning and Operating Public Utilities

The FERC Order 1000 documents and events are posted on the NTTG website:

2017

Attachment K revisions were filed with FERC on October 12, 2017 in Docket No. ER18-69-000. The NTTG entities filed proposed revisions to eliminate the Interconnection-Wide Planning Process under the NTTG entities’ Open Access Transmission Tariff. This change is necessitated by recent organizational changes at WECCwith an effective date of December 12, 2017 as requested.

2016

Attachment K revisions were filed with FERC on September 30, 2016 in Docket No. ER16-2715-000. The NTTG entities filed revisions to few definitions and provisions related to the Regional Planning process with an effective date of November 30, 2016 as requested. On November 30, 2016 FERC issued a final order accepting Attachment K revisions.

2015

February 18, 2015: The second Interregional – NTTG FERC Order Joint Compliance filing was in response to the December 18, 2014 Order on Interregional requirements.On June 1, 2015 FERC issued a final order accepting the Western Filing Parties Interregional compliance filings in Docket No ER13-1448-001.
Fourth Regional Compliance filing, submitted December 30, 2014 (which applies to the 2014-2015 Local Area Planning Cycle) was accepted by FERC March 24, 2015 with an Effective date of October 1, 2013 and matches the OATT. Attachment K revisions were submitted on December 30, 2014 in Docket No. ER13-67-003 to comply with FERC’s December 8, 2014 Order.

2014

Awaiting FERC order on September 2013 Compliance Filing (remainder of October 17th issues).
April 17, 2014: FERC filed an order on the Compliance Filing (Regional - NTTG) April 17, 2014. FERC said the compliance filing partially met FERC requirements and NTTG has 60 days to comply. They must file a response by Monday June 16th.
June 13, 2014: The third Regional - NTTG Compliance Filing was made.
Regional Compliance filing, filed June 13, 2014 (which applies to the 2014-2015 Local Area Planning Cycle) was accepted by FERC. FERC issued an Order on December 8, 2014, with an Effective date of 10-1-2013, finalizing the Local Area portion, meaning that Regional and Interregional activity continues.
December 30, 2014: The fourth Regional – NTTG Compliance Filing was made, minimal changes to Attachment K.

FERC Order 890 Attachment K Development and Posting

2016

On January 11, 2016, NorthWestern filed several revisions to its Open Access Transmission Tariff (OATT) to reflect certain ministerial changes, and revisions to Appendix C (Methodology to Assess Available Transfer Capacity). The revisions are accepted for filing, effective March 12, 2016. (ER16-707-000)

The approved Attachment K is posted on NWE’s OASIS website:

2015

See activity listed above in FERC Order 1000

NTTG

The meeting notices and available material on the Northern Tier Transmission Group (NTTG) are located on the OASIS site in the ‘Northern Tier Transmission Group (NTTG)’ folder.

Or you can go directly to the NTTG website home page for any and all information regarding NTTG:

NTTG is the Regional entity.

WECC

The interconnection wide entity is the Western Electric Coordinating Council (WECC). Any and all information regarding WECC can be found on their website: