Railbelt Transmission Organization is moving toward certification

Alan Bailey

for Petroleum News

The newly forming Railbelt Transmission Organization has held the first meeting of its governance committee and is moving toward applying to the Regulatory Commission of Alaska for a certificate of public necessity and convenience by the end of the year, Curtis Thayer, executive director of the Alaska Energy Authority, told the AEA board on Oct. 22. On Oct. 7 the RCA had issued an order requiring the certificate application to be filed by Dec. 31.

Mandated by House Bill 307, passed into law earlier this year, the RTO is being formed within AEA. The organization is tasked with developing and overseeing a new Railbelt electricity transmission tariff arrangement that removes current impediments to competition in the bulk power market in the Railbelt. Because of the manner in which the current tariffs for the use of different sectors of the grid tend to stack on top of each other, the tariff arrangements tend to obstruct the development of new power generation that could transmit power over long distances.

The RTO governance committee consists of an AEA representative, a representative from each Railbelt electric utility, and a representative from the Railbelt Reliability Council. HB307 required the RTO to be regulated by the RCA under regulations that the commission applies to utilities, including a mandate to file a certificate.

Thayer said the governance committee had held its first meeting on Sept. 27.

An RTO working group with representatives from the Railbelt utilities and AEA is developing the required filings for the RCA, Thayer said. AEA has drafted the first round of RTO bylaws and has shared these with the utilities, he said. To help provide recommendations for developing an open access transmission tariff that can work in the Railbelt, the working group is also reviewing Federal Energy Regulatory Commission standards for this type of tariff.

--ALAN BAILEY