Sierra Club sues federal agency over decision to fast-track new power projects

Southwest Power Pool, headquartered in Arkansas, is the regional transmission organization that includes Kansas in its 14-state territory. SPP applied for federal permission to fast-track applications to add power to the grid, saying it is necessary to maintain grid stability. (Submitted: Southwest Power Pool)

TOPEKA — An environmental organization is challenging a federal decision that allows the Southwest Power Pool to fast-track applications to bring new utility generation online.

In May, the Southwest Power Pool announced it had applied to the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, or FERC, for permission to implement an Expedited Resource Adequacy Study, or ERAS, process, the organization said in a news release.

SPP is a regional transmission organization that covers 14 states, including Kansas, and is one of seven approved by FERC as nonprofit member agencies that oversee transmission infrastructure, ensure utility system reliability and manage the wholesale electricity market.

“SPP developed ERAS in collaboration with its stakeholders and in response to an imminent and growing need to bring new generating resources online before the region’s generating capacity is outpaced by its electricity needs,” the news release said.

The ERAS process allows its members to nominate qualified generation projects for fast-track review, which could mean SPP will grant generator interconnection agreements to ERAS participants by March 2026, a news release said.

In July, FERC approved the ERAS process.

The Sierra Club, a national environmental organization, filed a lawsuit last week to stop ERAS. In a news release, the organization cited concerns about fast-tracking “the interconnection of mostly fossil-fueled generation to the power grid.”

Sierra Club also filed a lawsuit against a similar plan that FERC approved for the Midcontinent Interconnection System Operator.

“The lawsuit challenges FERC’s approval of the Expedited Resource Adequacy Study (ERAS) process, which allows the fast-tracked projects to pass significant upgrade costs to residential customers, and to skip over and also pass significant upgrade costs to clean energy projects that have been waiting for years to connect to the grid,” Sierra Club said in a news release.

SPP officials are reviewing the Sierra Club’s filing, said spokesman Seth Blomeley.

“We remain confident in the merits of our plan, which was approved by FERC,” he said.

SPP’s senior vice president of engineering, Casey Cathey, said recently that energy needs within the SPP’s region are expected to nearly double in the next decade.

The Sierra Club doesn’t believe the expedited process is needed, the organization’s news release said.

“In fact, SPP has suggested in other regulatory contexts that its other reforms to the standard interconnection queue will address any resource shortfalls for the grid it manages,” the organization said.

Sierra Club also pointed to Duke University research that shows new demands for electricity, such as from data enters, can be managed through load flexibility.

“FERC’s approval of SPP … line-cutting proposals will only add to the disruption that has prevented hundreds of gigawatts of clean energy from coming online to serve projected resource needs,” said Greg Wannier, Sierra Club senior attorney. “The result will be higher monthly bills for tens of millions of people by locking in new gas-burning power plants ahead of cheaper, shovel-ready clean energy projects. If FERC will not enforce its own fair market rules, the courts must do it for them.”