Southwest Power Pool’s board of directors voted Tuesday to approve a history $7.7 billion plan to expand and upgrade the power grid overseer’s power transmission capacity.
The nonprofit regional transmission organization, based in Little Rock, already had stakeholders’ approval for the milestone, which will address increasing demand for reliable electricity in SPP’s 14-state service territory.
The 2024 Integrated Transmission Plan represents the largest single portfolio of power transmission investments in SPP’s 83-year history.
The approved plan includes 89 transmission upgrades needed to address increasing electricity consumption and changes in the region’s generating fleet, the company said. “These projects are expected to quickly pay for themselves and provide benefits exceeding costs by a rate of at least 8-to-1 while improving grid resilience in the face of extreme weather events,” SPP said in a news release.
The portfolio, the product of 27 months of study and roughly 150 meetings of 11 groups representing SPP’s member organizations and utilities, encompasses 89 projects involving 2,333 miles of new transmission lines and 495 miles of rebuilt lines.
SPP Vice President of Engineering Casey Cathey said the plan’s magnitude is larger than ever before, but “the time is right.”
Lanny Nickell, SPP’s executive vice president and chief operating officer, noted that the RTO’s Markets and Operations Policy Committee had voted for the proposal with 95% approval.
“The high degree of consensus among our stakeholders in support of such a significant infrastructure investment demonstrates the quality of this remarkable planning effort which is expected to provide significant value for years to come,” he said in a statement. “We appreciate our members’ engagement in our study process and their support for this step toward improved resource adequacy and grid resilience.”
SPP ensures reliable supplies of power, adequate transmission infrastructure and wholesale energy markets for its members. It also provides energy services by contract in the Eastern and Western Interconnections and is developing a day-ahead energy market in the west.
The company said the new transmission projects will meet reliability needs across its service territory. SPP attributed the necessity to load growth, changes in the region’s power generation fleet, and increasingly frequent severe storms.
“We’re seeing a large increase in demand for power throughout the nation and our region,” Nickell said. “Events like Winter Storms Uri and Elliott have highlighted the need for increased transmission capacity to ensure that all customers continue to receive reliable electricity service in the most challenging times.”
SPP has directed the construction of more than $12 billion in transmission projects since it became the planning authority and RTO for its region 20 years ago. Its studies show that projects constructed in the SPP region provide net benefits at a rate of 5-to-1 or better.
The organization’s transmission investments have lowered and levelized wholesale electricity costs across its footprint, the organization said. It also cited “the reliable integration of massive amounts of renewable energy and the continued electrification of the central U.S.”
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