UNITED STATES OF AMERICA BEFORE THE FEDERAL ENERGY REGULATORY COMMISSION The Nevada Hydro Company, Inc. Docket No. EL18-131-000 SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA EDISON COMPANY'S COMMENTS AND PROTEST TO THE NEVADA HYDRO COMPANY S PETITION FOR DECLARATORY ORDER ROBERT KANG Attorney for SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA EDISON COMPANY 2244 Walnut Grove Avenue Post Office Box 800 Rosemead, California 91770 Telephone: (626 302-6012 Facsimile: (626 302-1935 E-mail: robert.kang@sce.com Dated: April 13, 2018
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA BEFORE THE FEDERAL ENERGY REGULATORY COMMISSION The Nevada Hydro Company Docket No. EL18-131-000 SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA EDISON COMPANY'S COMMENTS AND PROTEST TO THE NEVADA HYDRO COMPANY S PETITION FOR DECLARATORY ORDER I. INTRODUCTION Pursuant to Rules 211 and 214 of the Rules and Regulations of the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission ( Commission or FERC, and the Notice of Filing issued on March 14, 2018, in the above-captioned docket, Southern California Edison Company ( SCE hereby comments on, and protests, the Petition for Declaratory Order of The Nevada Hydro Company, Inc. ( Nevada Hydro, filed on March 9, 2018, in the above-referenced docket ( Comments and Petition, respectively. 1 Nevada Hydro seeks certain decisions regarding its proposed Lake Elsinore Advanced Pumped Storage ( LEAPS project. For the reasons set forth in this Motion and accompanying Comments, SCE urges the Commission to respond to the Petition as follows: 1 SCE requested permission to intervene on April 4, 2018, by filing a Motion to Intervene and Request for Extension of Time to Submit Comments in this proceeding. On April 9, 2018, the Commission granted SCE s motion and extended the comment period to April 13, 2018. -2 -
Require Nevada Hydro to submit LEAPS into the CAISO s Transmission Planning Process. Clarify certain jurisdictional siting issues. II. COMMENTS A. The Commission Should Require Nevada Hydro to Submit LEAPS Into the CAISO Transmission Planning Process Nevada Hydro asks for a Commission declaration that LEAPS is a transmission facility, and is entitled to cost recovery under the CAISO s TAC. 2 SCE believes this issue should be addressed by the CAISO, in the first instance, as part of its Transmission Planning Process. 3 Good cause exists to impose this requirement for the following reasons: First, the Commission should require Nevada Hydro to submit its proposal into the Transmission Planning Process to determine whether LEAPS is needed to address a reliability, economic, or policy-driven transmission constraint. The CAISO s Transmission Planning Process, part of the CAISO Tariff, exists to provide interested stakeholders with an open process to identify transmission constraints that may be resolved through specific proposals. 4 The materials that Nevada Hydro provided to demonstrate need has not, to SCE s knowledge, been subject to scrutiny, let alone scrutiny through a systematic, open process such as the Transmission Planning Process. 5 The Commission should, therefore, permit the CAISO to fulfill its duty under the Tariff to evaluate Nevada Hydro s proposed project for need. Next, this submission would enable CAISO to determine whether the proposed LEAPS facility meets the integration requirements of the CAISO s Transmission Control Agreement, 2 Petition, at 1. 3 CAISO Tariff, Sec. 24. 4 E.g., CAISO Tariff, Sec. 24.4.3 (stakeholders may submit solutions for reliability-driven needs; Sec. 24.3.4 (economic planning studies. 5 Petition, at Exhibit 3 (Affidavit of Ziad Alaywan P.E. in Support of Nevada Hydro Company s Petition for Declaratory Order. -3 -
which successful developers would needed to enter into, in order to turn over transmission facilities to CAISO s Operational Control. Third, requiring Nevada Hydro to submit LEAPS into the CAISO Transmission Planning Process would enable the project (if deemed needed to go through the open competition process mandated by the Commission in FERC Order No. 1000. 6 The version of LEAPS described in the Petition would be a high-voltage transmission facility (over 200kV, and thus falls within the scope of Order 1000. Finally, requiring CAISO review of Nevada Hydro s proposal fulfills the policy purpose of having a Transmission Planning Process in the first place: to identify transmission needs and solutions within the relevant region in a systematic, nondiscriminatory process that is open to all interested stakeholders. Nevada Hydro s request for declaratory relief appears based upon the belief that CAISO has a long standing position of treating pumped storage facilities as generating resources. 7 In fact, the CAISO recently approved two battery storage projects as transmission. 8 Nevada Hydro should follow the same Tariff-mandated process required of all transmission project proponents. 9 For the foregoing reasons, SCE asks that Nevada Hydro be required to submit LEAPS into the CAISO s Transmission Planning Process. B. The Commission Will Need to Clarify Jurisdictional Siting Issues Nevada Hydro has advanced different versions of LEAPS from its inception to the present as (1 a generation-only project with two long primary lines in P-14227; (2 as a generation project in P-11858, but treating those primary lines as a single networked transmission line called the TE/VS Interconnect Project ; and (3 as a wholesale transmission facility in EL18-131. The existence of these multiple versions makes it difficult to ascertain 6 Transmission Planning and Cost Allocation by Transmission Owner and Operating Public Utilities, Order No. 1000, FERC Stats. & Regs. 31,323 (2011, order on reh g, Order No. 1000-A, 139 FERC 61,132, order on reh g, Order No. 1000-B, 141 FERC 61,044 (2012, aff d sub nom, S.C. Pub. Serv. Suth. V. FERC, 762 F.3d 41 (D.C. Cir. 2014. 7 Petition, at 16 (footnote omitted. 8 CAISO Board Approved 2017-2018 Transmission Plan, pp. 128-29; available at http://www.caiso.com/documents/boardapproved-2017-2018_transmission_plan.pdf (last visited April 12, 2018. 9 CAISO Tariff, Sec. 24. -4 -
exactly which part of LEAPS is within the Commission s jurisdiction to license, and which FERC-jurisdictional agreements will be needed. 10 Accordingly, if the EL18-131 version of LEAPS is allowed to proceed, the Commission will need to clarify its licensing jurisdiction as to the various portions of the wholesale transmission facility as now proposed; but, at the least, the California Public Utilities Commission will have siting authority for the transmission lines, as shown by Nevada Hydro s prior attempts to obtain a Certificate of Public Convenience and Necessity for the proposed networked, stand-alone, transmission line component that was part of Nevada Hydro s very first LEAPS proposal in Docket No. P-11858. 11 SCE also takes this opportunity to note that if Nevada Hydro is successful in developing LEAPS as a wholesale transmission facility, then it (Nevada Hydro will need to enter into a TO- TO interconnection agreement between Nevada Hydro and the owners of any systems that it seeks to interconnect with. Nevada Hydro cannot use generator interconnection agreements to make this interconnection. 12 10 For example, in Proceeding P-11858, the Commission dismissed Nevada Hydro s first hydroelectric license for LEAPS because Nevada Hydro and its then-co-applicant disagreed on whether to develop LEAPS as a transmission and generation facility, or as only a generation facility. Order Denying Rehearing, 137 FERC 61,133 (2011. On September 10, 2012, after Nevada Hydro reappled for a hydroelectric license in P-14227, the Commission asked Nevada Hydro to clarify whether it (Nevada Hydro intended to develop the transmission line portion of LEAPS as primary lines or as an interconnected stand-alone transmission line. Request for Clarification of Preliminary Permit Proposal, P-14227 (fld. Sept. 10, 2012. Nevada Hydro responded on October 5, 2012, that the LEAPS facility s connection(s to the grid must be primary lines as required under the Federal Power Act. Lake Elsinore Advanced Pump Storage Project [Supplemental Information], P-14227 (Oct. 5, 2012. By filing the Petition in EL18-131, Nevada Hydro s expectations for LEAPS appears to have changed again. However, Nevada Hydro appears to have backtracked on that assertion by filing the instant Petition which describes LEAPS as a transmission facility. 11 Application, In the Matter of the Application of The Nevada Hydro Company for a Certificate of Public Convenience and Necessity for the Talega-Escondido/Valley-Serrano 500 kv Interconnect Project, A.10-070.001 (fld. July 6, 2010(seeking a CPCN to develop the stand-alone transmission line portion of Nevada Hydro s combined LEAPS/transmission line project. 12 Nevada Hydro has previously asserted that it may use generator interconnection procedures and agreements to interconnect transmission facilities to the CAISO grid. E.g., Comments of The Nevada Hydro Company, Inc. on the Proposed Decision to Dismiss Application and Deny Petition to Modify, A.10.07.001, at 3 (Cal. Pub. Util. Comm n, fld. April 23, 2012, available at http://docs.cpuc.ca.gov/publisheddocs/efile/cm/165301.pdf (last viewed April 13, 2018. SCE is a party to a generator interconnection agreement between Nevada Hydro, the CAISO, and SCE, to interconnect the generation-only version of LEAPS (from P-14227 to the CAISO grid. However, the parties generator interconnection agreement cannot be used to interconnect a transmission facility, such as the wholesale transmission version of LEAPS described in EL18-131, to the CAISO grid. Different contract terms, reflecting different responsibilities, would be needed to interconnect the latter. -5 -
C. Conclusion For the reasons set forth above, SCE asks the Commission to implement the steps and clarifications proposed in these Comments. Respectfully submitted, ROBERT KANG By: /s/ Robert J. Kang Robert J. Kang Attorneys for SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA EDISON COMPANY 2244 Walnut Grove Avenue Post Office Box 800 Rosemead, California 91770 Telephone: (626 302-6012 Facsimile: (626 302-1935 E-mail: robert.kang@sce.com Dated: April 13, 2018-6 -
CERTIFICATE OF SERVICE I hereby certify that I have this day served the foregoing SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA EDISON COMPANY'S COMMENTS AND PROTEST TO THE NEVADA HYDRO COMPANY S PETITION FOR DECLARATORY ORDER upon each person designated on the official service list compiled by the Secretary in this proceeding. Dated at Rosemead, California, this 13th day of April, 2018: /s/vicki Carr-Donerson Vicki Carr-Donerson SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA EDISON COMPANY 2244 Walnut Grove Avenue Post Office Box 800 Rosemead, California 91770 Telephone: (626 302-6846