In our 10-Year Assessments and Updates, projects are identified that address system reliability issues, economic benefits, regional issues, loss savings, transmission service issues, generation or distribution interconnections, or any combination of the above. In general, these projects address system performance issues identified using the governing system planning criteria or economic benefits for customers. We have numerous other projects under way or under evaluation that address asset renewal including reliability improvement and end-of-life equipment issues. The projects referenced in the project tables PR-2 through PR-25a generally include only those projects that at least in part address system reliability issues. Projects referenced in tables AR-1 through AR-4 detail our asset renewal efforts.
To facilitate an understanding of the status of the various future projects, we classify projects into one of three possible categories – Planned, Proposed or Provisional. Please note that the classifications of asset renewal projects are underway and thus are not depicted in Tables AR-1 through AR-4.
Each classification has specific criteria based on the status of the project as outlined below:
Planned projects:
- ATC planning is complete;
- If required, we have applied for regulatory approvals, which may be pending or have been issued; and
- Project may be under construction or in construction planning phase.
Proposed projects:
- ATC planning is not complete;
- ATC has not yet pursued regulatory approvals; and
- Project represents ATC’s preliminary preferred project alternatives from a system performance perspective.
Provisional projects:
- ATC planning is not complete;
- ATC has not yet sought regulatory approvals; and
- Project reflects meeting the need identified, but does not necessarily represent ATC’s preliminary preferred project alternative.
In the 2001-2010 10-Year Assessments and Updates, we identified 680 projects that address system reliability issues. Projects that address equipment reliability issues are not included in these statistics. Figure PR-6 illustrates the status of system reliability and economic projects ATC has considered from 2001-2010. Regarding Figure PR-6, it is worthwhile to note that:
- ATC has completed 331 projects and another 8 are in design or under construction. Notable projects most recently completed are listed in
Table PR-1. Projects under construction include capacitor bank installations, the Warrens transmission-to-distribution interconnection, and the Oak Creek generation projects.
- 85 projects have been replaced with alternate project solutions. It is not unusual that the status of certain projects will change or evolve since customer needs and uses of the transmission system continually are changing.
- ATC canceled 157 projects that were identified in previous Assessment reports due to changing needs and up-to-date information. Most of these projects were relatively minor projects, involving only replacement of equipment at existing substations.
- 101 future projects are in various stages of evaluation or development (Planned which includes projects In Design/Under Construction, Proposed or Provisional).
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Planning criteria & tools