Project Tracking & NTCs

Southwest Power Pool's Transmission Project Tracking program actively monitors the progress of approved SPP Transmission Expansion Plan (STEP), SPP Aggregate Study and TO planned projects. Each quarter, SPP staff polls transmission owners to determine the progress made on each approved project. Below, you'll find further information about the reporting process, including definitions of frequently used terms.

SPP's Board of Directors and Attachment O of the Open Access Transmission Tariff directs project owners to begin construction of specific regionally approved transmission projects. Letters acknowledging these projects (Notifications to Construct, or NTCs) are posted in the folders linked on the left of this page. 

Project Tracking Definitions:

• NTC_ID: Notification to Construct (NTC) ID numbers are given by SPP, and are associated with notifications issued to transmission owners.
• PID: Project IDs are unique numbers assigned by SPP to each transmission project.
• UID: An Upgrade ID is a unique ID number assigned by SPP to each upgrade. Each project may have more than one upgrade.
• Area: Area numbers are associated with each transmission owner control area.
• Project Name: Describes the name of the project.
• Project Owner Indicated In-Service Date: This date, assigned by the project owner, provides a "best estimate" of when a project will be in service.
• RTO Determined Need Date: This date is determined by SPP staff while evaluating the transmission needs in accordance with study processes under SPP FERC approved Open Access Transmission Tariff.
• Notification to Construct issue date: This is the date on which an NTC is issued by SPP staff to project owners.
• Cost estimate: Cost estimate is an approximate value of the engineering design and construction cost required to complete the project.
• Final cost: Final cost is the total cost incurred upon project completion and is to be provided by the project owner after closing all account books on the project.
• Project lead time: The time required to complete the project including Right of Way, engineering design, procurement and construction lead times.
• Project status comments: Project owners and/or SPP staff provide brief description of issues that justify the status of the project.

Why do we need it? 

• NTC_ID, PID, UID and Area: To identify each NTC, project, upgrade, and area with a unique number. Facilitates querying from a database.
• Project owner indicated in-service date: This date indicates practicable construction hurdles or special circumstances affecting the on time completion of the project which in turn affects the status of the project.
• RTO determined need date: This date indicates the time by which the project needs to be complete in accordance with the associated RTO process requirements.
• Cost estimate and final cost: Having both estimated and final costs allows the RTO to compare the initial estimate and final cost of a project. Final cost is required to determine revenue requirements for network upgrades.
• Project lead time: To determine the time available from project start to completion. Needed to determine if redispatch or other mitigation is required prior to completion of the project.