April 17, 2009
To:
Potential Transmission Project Sponsors
From:
PacifiCorp Transmission
Subject:
Inquiries regarding interests in
participation with Energy Gateway.
coordination, joint
planning or
This letter is in response to recent inquiries regarding potential interest in coordinating,
joint planning, and participation with PacifiCorp’s Energy Gateway Project and to
establish certain nondiscriminatory criteria necessary to facilitate ongoing discussions
between PacifiCorp and potential transmission project sponsors.
PacifiCorp’s Energy Gateway Project was announced in May 2007 with the primary
purpose of meeting network customer obligations. Since that time, a number of other
potential transmission projects have emerged throughout the region and are in varying
stages of concept development. Several project sponsors have contacted PacifiCorp and
indicated potential interest in partnering, cooperating, and coordinating with portions of
Energy Gateway. In an effort to reasonably respond to these inquiries and to ensure
consistency in PacifiCorp's interactions with each project sponsor, the company has
developed a general request to aid with these discussions. PacifiCorp’s intent is to
clearly communicate a process for future coordination while trying to offer the best path
forward for parties to work together as each project sponsor strives to achieve their
respective objectives and obligations.
PacifiCorp continues to encourage and support coordination efforts provided these efforts
do not detrimentally affect PacifiCorp’s core responsibility to reliability serve its
customers. Accordingly, PacifiCorp requests that coordination, joint planning, and
participation with the Energy Gateway project include the following considerations.
Specifically, that:
1. Parties provide information on project commitments,
2. Parties initiate and eventually gain approval through the Western Electricity
Coordinating Council (WECC) regional transmission project planning
process,
3. Parties provide a technical assessment and conduct appropriate impact studies,
and
4. Coordination does not delay planned in service dates.
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April 17, 2009
1.
Information on Commitments
To engage in constructive dialog, each project sponsor interested in joint development
with PacifiCorp transmission will be asked to provide the following information, subject
to appropriate confidentially agreements:
2.

A general project description including information that demonstrates that
necessary commitments are in place, or provide target dates for securing
commitments, to construct the proposed project, such as pending or fully executed
firm contracts for transmission capacity, and a statement of financial strength.

A plan to provide for the costs to system users for ancillary services required in
addition to firm transmission capacity service, including but not limited to,
variable generation integration costs, regulation, and reserves.

A plan for including all permitting, siting, and necessary approvals required for
the project to successfully be completed and the respective timing of each
requirement.

A plan that describes the anticipated operator and scheduling entity of the
proposed project.

Project sponsors’ plans for meeting any necessary Federal Energy Regulatory
Commission or state commission requirements, including open access
transmission tariff (OATT) or other tariff filings, and expected dates.

Plans and timing for project sponsors to complete WECC protocols and ratings.
Regional Planning
In addition to the information requested related to commitments, PacifiCorp requests that
project sponsors successfully receive WECC approval through the WECC regional
transmission project planning process. To facilitate the possibility of joint development,
PacifiCorp’s technical staff will interact as appropriate and necessary with potential
project sponsors during this process. Generally, the WECC process is intended to
establish the project(s) proof of concept, provide the project sponsor with information on
the projects viability (from an interconnection wide perspective), and ensure there is
overall support for the project in the region. To the extent a project sponsor believes their
project(s) may not require a WECC rating through this process, PacifiCorp requests that
sponsors gain concurrence from WECC that WECC ratings are not required for the
project to go in service.
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April 17, 2009
3.
Technical Assessment and Impact Studies
As part of the WECC process, PacifiCorp will have particular interest in project
sponsors’ demonstration that their project does not reduce reliability or transmission
transfer capability, and that their project does not cause any detrimental operating or
maintenance issues for PacifiCorp’s Energy Gateway project now and in the future. As
dialog continues, PacifiCorp may request detailed technical information to assist in this
effort.
4.
Timing Considerations
For PacifiCorp transmission to meet its OATT obligations to network customers, multiple
key work streams are running in parallel for the Energy Gateway project, including but
not limited to: WECC ratings; federal, state and local permitting; commitment planning
(loads & resources), and procurement/construction activities. This approach is
particularly critical for Energy Gateway West to meet target in-service dates as early as
2014 and to allow renewable resources to be integrated to meet customer needs. As
discussions continue with project sponsors, additional scheduling details will be provided
to assure coordination does not delay project development and planned in service dates.
PacifiCorp looks forward to working with all interested parties to facilitate regional
coordination and possible joint development. If you have questions or would like to
discuss a partnership in more detail, please contact Cory Scott at (503) 813-6011.
Sincerely,
John Cupparo
Vice President, Transmission
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April 17, 2009