BPA concludes TC-24 tariff proceeding with issuance of final record of decision

On Feb. 9, the Bonneville Power Administration issued its final Record of Decision in the TC-24 tariff proceeding. The TC-24 final ROD adopts the TC-24 settlement agreement, which includes modifications to BPA’s Open Access Transmission Tariff. The issuance of the final ROD ends the TC-24 tariff proceeding and the prohibition of ex parte communications on TC-24 matters. Ex parte remains in effect for matters related to Power and Transmission rates as the BP-24 Rate Case proceeds.

Changes to BPA’s OATT reflect clarifications, updates and some ministerial edits. This includes an improvement in BPA’s evaluation of new requests for long-term transmission service on flow-based paths, which advances the agency’s ongoing effort to enhance the study process for awarding transmission service. In addition, the removal of Utility Delivery and Direct Service Industry loss factors, which are outdated and no longer in use, reflect efforts to modernize the tariff.

“The settlement demonstrates the efficiency and stability of our tariff process,” said BPA Administrator and CEO John Hairston. “It frees staff to work on strategic initiatives and customer needs on issues such as BPA’s line and load interconnection procedures.”

The adopted tariff will go into effect on Oct. 1, 2023, except as otherwise provided by the TC-24 settlement agreement. The final ROD and tariff are available on the TC-24 tariff proceeding webpage.

As part of the TC-24 settlement agreement, BPA committed to host several workshops prior to the TC-26 proceeding. Topics include a comparsion of BPA’s Forecast Data submittal requirements in tariff Attachment Q, Energy Imbalance Market, to other third-party EIM participant’s requirements, line and load interconnection procedures and BPA’s transmission planning process. Information on these meetings will be available via Tech Forum as more details are available. In the near term, BPA will discuss implementation of the conditional reservation deadline for hourly firm point-to-point service at the Feb. 15 Customer Business Process Improvements customer conference call.