FERC questions

Planning and Expansion

1. What is the appropriate range of purposes for an RTO transmission planning process? What selection criteria should an RTO use to decide which specific projects are included in the regional plan?

2. Should a planning process focus on identifying projects to:

* maintain system reliability?
* expand competitive trading opportunities in its region?
* alleviate congestion?
* support new and expanded generation projects?
* provide greater import capability?
* improve flexibility and stability?

3. What priority should each have? How often should the plan should be revised or updated?

4. What planning process should an RTO develop to identify transmission expansions and enhancements that should be included in its regional expansion plan?

* committee process that includes all participants?
* process that relies on the RTO and recognized experts?
* process that relies on teamwork between the RTO and transmission owners with input from other market participants?

5. Who should be responsible for constructing transmission facilities in an RTO? transmission owners? A competitive bidding process? Something else?

6. What process should apply to transmission expansions that may not be part of a central planning process? For example, what role should merchant projects play in expanding the grid?

7. If there is not enough transmission capacity to satisfy all customers, will the Commission continue to offer the right-of-first refusal to existing users?

* if so, will this same policy apply when the existing users are a utility's native load?

8. Who pays for new transmission capacity? How should cost responsibility for the plan's projects be assigned?

* should all projects that are included in the plan be supported by all market participants? Equally?
* what cost allocation principles should be adopted? The cost causation principle? Something else?
* if new capacity is priced incrementally (customer is willing to pay), should there be a separate determination of need?
* if it is priced on a rolled-in basis, do all customers participate in the determination of need?

9. How are transmission rights to new capacity allocated? Does this answer depend on rolled-in versus incremental pricing?