Southwest Power Pool Inc., the electric grid and wholesale power market management nonprofit based in Little Rock, is putting some emphasis on the “west” in its name.
This week, it pushed westward with its selection by six utilities of the Western Interconnection to administer a blueprint for using technology to cut energy congestion on power transmission lines.
The Western Connection encompasses the power grid in 11 western states and a sliver of Texas, as well as two provinces in western Canada and part of Mexico.
The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission accepted the blueprint, known as the Western Interconnection Unscheduled Flow Mitigation Plan, in 2016. SPP will oversee the use of phase-shifting transformers and other devices on power lines on behalf of the California Independent System Operator, NorthWestern Energy, NV Energy, PacifiCorp, Tri-State Generation and Transmission Association, and the Western Area Power Administration.
“We’re proud the QOOs [qualified owners and operators of the transformers and other devices] in the Western Interconnection recognize our expertise in ensuring reliability, managing the grid and managing complex settlement processes,” Carl Monroe, SPP’s executive vice president and chief operating officer, said in a news release. “This expansion of our service offerings comes at an exciting time as we’re looking for opportunities to bring SPP’s customer-focused business model to the West.”
As a regional transmission organization, SPP has expanded its territory and services widely over the last decade, company officials say, and it has been providing reliability coordination services both to member companies and to other customers on a contract basis for more than 20 years.
As administrator of the western program, SPP will oversee the collection of compensation for the owners of equipment used to manage grid congestion, collecting those costs from the organizations that generate, buy, sell or transport energy on the system, and coordinate getting those payments to device owners. Total compensation in the first year of SPP oversight is expected to reach about $3 million.
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