The Seven Potential Threats to the Transmission Business: Is Transmission in SPP Still a Solid Business? (white paper)
Over the past decade, the transmission business has been lucrative for most transmission owners in SPP transmission. Transmission investment has been a driver of earnings growth for investor-owned utilities (“IOUs”) and transmission companies (“Transcos”), while providing high returns for public power and cooperatives. On the horizon, however, there are numerous potential threats to the transmission business and to transmission owners’ ability to sustain high levels of new investment. MCR believes that although some of these threats may eventually have an increasing impact on future investment opportunities, there are factors that mitigate these threats. Transmission will continue to be a strong business in SPP through at least the mid-2020s.