FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:
December 31, 1997
Contact: Robert Fullerton, 303/275-2700 (Western)
Sharon Ramsey, 918/595-6603 (Southwestern)
Two Federal power marketing administrations today filed Open Access Transmission Service Tariffs with the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC). These tariffs will govern future access to available electric transmission from the Energy Department's Western Area and Southwestern power marketing administrations. The tariffs are consistent with those of other wholesale transmission providers.
"The Department of Energy has strongly supported wholesale open access," noted Deputy Energy Secretary Elizabeth Moler. "Therefore, I'm pleased that Western and Southwestern are filing open access tariffs. Bonneville Power Administration has filed an open access tariff already. With these two filings, all of the PMAs that have transmission will have open access tariffs on file with FERC."
The power marketing administrations will meet FERC's established comparability standards for wholesale electric transmission by offering to provide transmission service to others equivalent to the service they provide themselves. Ancillary services are also a part of the open access tariffs. These are services necessary to support the transmission of power from generation to load while maintaining reliable transmission system operation. Examples of ancillary services include scheduling, system control and dispatch of power, and operating reserves to meet load in the event of a system disturbance. Open access transmission rates will be developed on a system-by-system or project-by-project basis and will be completed during 1998.
Western, based in Golden, Colo., owns 16,857 circuit-miles of transmission line and 258 substations in its marketing area which comprises all or parts of 15 central and western states. Southwestern headquartered in Tulsa, Okla., owns 1,380 circuit-miles of transmission line and 24 substations in its marketing area, which comprises all or parts of Oklahoma Missouri, Arkansas, Louisiana, Kansas and Texas.
The tariffs are available on the World Wide Web at http://www.wapa.gov for Western and http://www.swpa.gov for Southwestern.
R-97-144 -DOE-
• U.S. Department of Energy •Office of the Press Secretary • Washington , D.C. 20585