Yesterday the Southwest Power Pool, Inc. (SPP) Board of Directors approved a package of transmission expansion "Priority Projects" for further analysis and review by regional stakeholders with oversight from the Strategic Planning Committee and in coordination with the Markets and Operations Policy Committee. In January 2010, the following Priority Projects will be presented for approval to the Board of Directors and Regional State Committee of state regulators:

• 765 kV line in Kansas linking Spearville, a planned substation in Comanche County, Medicine Lodge, and Wichita, operated at 345 kV at an estimated cost of $518 million
• 765 kV line linking a planned substation in Comanche County, Kansas to the planned Woodward District EHV substation near Woodward, Oklahoma operated at 345 kV at an estimated cost of $135 million
• 345 kV double circuit line linking the Hitchland substation south of Guyman, Oklahoma to the planned Woodward District EHV substation near Woodward, Oklahoma at an estimated cost of $237 million
• 345 kV line from Cooper in the southeast corner of Nebraska through Maryville, Missouri to Sibley (just east of Kansas City, Missouri) at an estimated cost of $278 million
• 345 kV line from Valliant in southeast Oklahoma to Texarkana on the Texas-Arkansas state line at an estimated cost of $131 million
• 138 kV reactor at a Tulsa, Oklahoma power station at an estimated cost of $842,000

Total engineering and construction costs are approximately $1.3 billion.

These Priority Projects meet transmission planning objectives of the

• Are near-term opportunities while transitioning to a new Integrated Transmission Planning process;
• Are "readily apparent" projects that continue to appear as needed in SPP’s current planning processes;
• Will relieve grid congestion, which results in the inability to use least-cost electricity to meet demand. Congestion is caused by issues such as inadequate transmission in certain areas, line and generator maintenance outages, and unplanned outages such as storms or trees on lines;
• Will improve access to the regional power grid by wholesale transmission customers such as utilities; and
• Will improve transfers between SPP’s east and west regions.

Projects are expected to be paid for with a new Highway/Byway cost allocation methodology that was endorsed by the Regional State Committee yesterday and the Board of Directors today. The Highway/Byway methodology is expected to be implemented in 2010 following its addition to SPP’s Open Access Transmission Tariff and final approval by the Board of Directors and Federal Energy Regulatory Commission. The "highway" refers to 300+ kV transmission projects; costs will be assigned to Transmission Owners across the region based on their historic use of the region’s energy. The "byway" refers to transmission projects below 300 kV; costs will be assigned by formula more directly to the utility in whose service territory the project is located.