1. Mountain West Transmission Group
Bob Easton - WAPA
March 2017 MIC Update

2. What is the Mountain West Transmission Group?
Mountain West is an informal collaboration of electricity providers that are working to develop strategies to adapt to a changing industry.
Formed in early 2013 to evaluate a suite of options ranging from a common transmission tariff to Regional Transmission Organization (RTO) membership.
Includes investor-owned utilities, municipal electricity providers, generation and transmission cooperatives, and federal power marketing administration projects.

3. Participating Transmission Owners*
Basin Electric Power Cooperative (BEPC)
Black Hills Energy’s three electric utilities in Colorado, South Dakota and Wyoming, subsidiaries of the Rapid City-based Black Hills Corp
Colorado Springs Utilities (CSU)
Platte River Power Authority (PRPA)
Public Service Company of Colorado (PSCo)
Tri‐State Generation and Transmission Association (Tri‐State)
Western Area Power Administration (WAPA)
Loveland Area Projects (LAP)
Colorado River Storage Project (CRSP)
* Others may join after initial implementation.

4. Mountain West Transmission Footprint
Mountain West Participants are a Subset of the WestConnect Planning Region and are Members of the Colorado Coordinated Planning Group (CCPG)

5. What is the Scope of Mountain West’s Activities?
Mountain West is evaluating the potential benefits and costs of a common transmission tariff or participation in an existing RTO with a full market. Based on evaluations to- date, the group is focusing its attention on full RTO participation.
If Mountain West joins an RTO, it would be under that RTO’s existing governance, market, and tariff provisions.*
* With tariff revisions to add the participants, incorporate specific enabling requirements of the parties and adapt governance to accommodate new participating states.

6. Mountain West 2013 Statistics
Transmission Owner
Gross Transmission
Plant ($)
Net Transmission
Annual Transmission Revenue Requirement ($)
Miles of Transmission
Basin Electric Power Cooperative Westside
52,126,841
19,108,267
4,535,874
209
Cheyenne Light Fuel & Power
41,027,108
35,981,808
6,848,030 45
Black Hills Colorado Electric Utility
333,880,142
146,938,581
12,452,172
581
City of Colorado Springs Utilities
140,898,577
67,284,691
21,957,844
232
Common Use System (BEPC & BHC)
243,548,935
185,304,004
29,846,727
983
Platte River Power Authority
348,969,285
266,337,678
38,277,136
370
Western CRSP
651,271,471
391,945,017
58,386,041
2,325
Western LAP
550,045,450
286,761,337
61,866,058
2,508
Tri-State Generation and Transmission Association
766,276,122
431,085,996
96,781,507
4,660
Public Service Company of Colorado
1,616,197,083
1,265,799,495
208,498,664
3,782
Total
$ 4,744,241,013
$ 3,096,546,874
$539,450,053
15,694 6

7. Significant Work to Date
Strong cooperative effort
Conceptual rate design and cost shift mitigation; despite multiple failed attempts at regional tariffs in the past
Developed and signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) and a Letter of Understanding (LOU)
Developed a Request for Information (RFI) from RTOs
Conducted a market study to evaluate resource-side benefits of having a common tariff or joining an RTO
Ongoing outreach in various forums 7

8. Joint Tariff Aspect Single OASIS De-pancaking of transmission charges
All load is network load
Single determination of Available Transfer Capacity (ATC)/Available Flowgate Capacity (AFC)
Transition away from contract-path to flow-based
Improved transmission planning and interconnection to avoid duplication of facility investments
One point of contact for system interconnections
Additional siting opportunities for new resources 8

9. Wholesale Electric Market
Optimizes the use of generation and transmission assets
Maintains a wide-area view and real-time situational awareness of the entire footprint to monitor and manage the reliability of the system
Serves as the centralized operator for a Day-2 market for auction-based electricity products to optimize efficiency and minimize costs
Provides market monitoring oversight
Facilitates transmission planning across multiple transmission systems and states 9

10. Mountain West Analyses
Transmission Cost Study*
Request for Information from RTOs*
Market Study* 10
*Discussed in following slides.

11. Transmission Tariff Proposal
Network customers pay the zonal rate in which their load sinks
Owners in zone retain revenue for zonal network load
Eliminate all internal point to points (PTP)
Current conceptual Landscape – 8 zones
Each transmission owner is a zone, except Tri-State
Tri-State facilities are split between Western LAP and PSCo zones
Single Regional Through and Out Rate (RTOR) applied to PTP
RTOR = Total MWTG Annual Transmission Revenue Requirement (ATRR) divided by Total MWTG load
Revenues allocated based on ATRR and MegaWatt-Mile split, after mitigation
Cost shifts would be mitigated over seven years
Agreement for required arrangements for WAPA
Federal Service Exemption (FERC approved for WAPA-Upper Great Plains in the Southwest Power Pool) 11

12. Request for Information from RTOs
Issued to SPP, CAISO, MISO, and PJM in May 2016
Responses received in July 2016
Requested that the RTOs provide information on a wide range of services from common transmission tariff administration to full RTO membership
RFI is one of multiple sources of information to assist the group in consideration of path forward 12

13. Market Study Brattle Group conducted a two-phase production cost study
Current Year 2016 (Phase 1)
Status quo with nine tariffs
Remove pancaked transmission charges to simulate a common tariff
RTO market
Future Year 2024 (Phase 2)
Multiple scenarios 13

14. Market Study
Phase 1 and 2 results showed encouraging production cost savings in RTO market
Benefits of common-tariff-only were not significant
Parties focusing on full RTO membership 14

15. Study Results Production Cost Savings (Mountain West)
RTO Costs for Mountain West
Annual Benefit
2016
2024
Single Tariff/Existing Bilateral Market
$14 M
Not Studied
Single Tariff/RTO
“Day 2” Market
$53 M
$71 M
Start-Up Cost from RTO
Annual Cost
Tariff Administration only
$4-7 M
$3-7 M
RTO Membership
NA*
$24-60 M
* Start-up costs for an RTO to incorporate Mountain West participants into the membership are included in the annual cost. 15

16. Next Steps
As of January 5, Narrow discussions of potential RTO membership to SPP
Discussions will focus on details to determine if Mountain West needs can be met
Mountain West has NOT decided to join SPP
Mountain West may pursue further discussions with MISO, PJM, or both 16

17. Estimated Timeline
Ongoing: Customer, regulator, and stakeholder meetings
January 2017: Mountain West consensus on additional discussions with SPP
Early - Mid 2017: Discussions with SPP; Mountain West entities determine if SPP membership is viable
Mid 2017 – Mid 2018: State and federal regulatory approvals
2019: Implementation 17

18. Contact Info
Bob Easton
VP of Transmission Services for CRSP, DSW
& RMR 18