No. 0100
Date: May 1, 2010
Superseded Date: n/a
Business Practice: Treatment of Costs Associated with Customer Requests
Statement of Need: The cost allocation related to any Network Upgrade is normally determined by the Southwest Power Pool (SPP) Open Access Transmission Tariff (OATT). The costs related to Network Upgrades which are addressed in the OATT are associated with Generation Interconnections, Grid Reliability (NERC/SPP Standards), Transmission Owner criteria, New Transmission Interconnections, Transmission Service requests, and Sponsored Upgrades. However, the OATT does not completely address all of the cost allocation issues related to the addition, change, or removal of a customer’s Delivery Point(s). This Business Practice is designed to address those issues. If any conflict between this Business Practice and the OATT exist, the terms and conditions of the OATT will rule.
Case 1: Facilities Needed to Connect New Delivery Points for Load Growth
Westar will purchase, install, and operate all transmission facilities required to serve new load additions. Cost of these facilities will be recovered through Westar’s Zonal rates pursuant to the OATT. Any transmission level facilities required beyond the Transmission Customer’s Delivery Point are the responsibility of the Transmission Customer. Upon mutual agreement between Westar and the Transmission Customer, Westar may purchase, install and/or operate transmission level facilities beyond the Delivery Point; however, the Transmission Customer will be allocated all costs related to such facilities. Facilities on the transmission side of the Delivery Point will be constructed as outlined in Westar’s “Facility Connection Standards” and pursuant to the OATT.
Case 2: Facilities Needed to Mitigate Performance-Related Issues
Westar will take appropriate actions to mitigate performance-related issues on transmission facilities with a documented history of poor performance (outage history) delivering transmission service. It is at Westar’s discretion as to how any identified, poor performance issues are resolved. Examples of resolution may include, but are not limited to, the rebuilding of facilities and/or the construction of new facilities. Such upgrades will be considered Reliability Upgrades and the costs recovered pursuant to the OATT.
Case 3: Facilities Needed for Backup Delivery Points
A Transmission Customer may request additional Delivery Points pursuant to its transmission service agreement, to serve as a backup source. If it is determined that the capacity of the existing Delivery Point(s) is adequate to serve the existing and forecasted firm load of the customer, then the requested Delivery Point shall be considered a Backup Delivery Point and any transmission-level facilities required to create the new Delivery Point shall be treated as a Sponsored Upgrade under the OATT. Therefore, the costs will be fully-allocated to the Transmission Customer. Subsequently the costs of any distribution-evel facilities required for the requested Delivery Point will also be the responsibility of the Transmission Customer.
Case 4: Facilities Needed for Pre-OATT Agreements
Transmission facilities required to provide or maintain transmission service under service agreements that pre-date the OATT shall be subject to this Business Practice unless otherwise stated in the agreement.