SPP said last week it will begin allowing staff to return to its Little Rock, Ark., corporate headquarters in October, although the move is dependent upon “our community meeting certain milestones for health and safety.”

The transition back to the office is scheduled to begin Oct. 5. SPP will used a phased approach, with 20% of the staff returning at a time. The grid operator in mid-March sent home its non-operations personnel, though some individuals have returned in recent weeks.

“We will continue best practices to keep our employees healthy and provide our essential services,” CEO Barbara Sugg said in an email to stakeholders.

The RTO’s Board of Directors and other committees will continue to meet virtually through at least January. The board and Markets and Operations Policy Committee last met in person in January.

The White House Coronavirus Task Force last week placed Arkansas in the “red zone,” which recommends indoor dining be capped at 25% capacity and that bars be closed. The state on Friday reported a record 1,094 confirmed COVID-19 cases and 12 deaths, raising its totals to 64,174 and 873, respectively.

Sugg also took time to remark on SPP’s “collective progress” this year. Load has returned to pre-pandemic levels, while staff and stakeholders continue to prepare to launch the RTO’s Western Energy Imbalance Service market and conduct other strategic initiatives.

“Together we have navigated temporary and lasting changes to the way we work. … I know together, we stand ready to meet new energy challenges that arise,” she wrote.

Sugg said SPP is “working through the aftermath of Hurricane Laura,” which affected its footprint and those of neighbors ERCOT and MISO. The RTO has also supported western grid reliability by coordinating with CAISO, members and customers to ensure resources are available.

“We learn from each event we experience and take the opportunity to improve our own processes while also communicating with our peers about lessons learned from their perspective,” she said.

“Take good care, and please wear a mask,” Sugg said, in closing her email.

SPC Takes Look at Tx Planning

The Strategic Planning Committee is forming a task force — cumbersomely named the Strategic & Creative Re-Engineering of Integrated Planning Team (SCRIPT) — to evaluate all of SPP’s transmission planning and applicable cost allocation processes.

SCRIPT comprises 11 SPC and Members Committee representatives and will add a soon-to-be-named member from the Regional State Committee. Chaired by Director Mark Crisson, the group will report to the board and provide updates to the three committees.

“This is going to be a really important initiative that has the potential to have a major strategic impact on the organization,” Crisson said during an Aug. 31 SPC education session on transmission planning.

During the session, SPP staff ran the committee through its planning initiatives and processes, including:

• centralized coordinated process and integrated transmission planning;
• cost-allocation alignment;
• decision quality;
• risk-based planning;
• regional fuel mix;
• generator interconnection (GI) improvements; and
• model reduction.

SPP has seven planning departments. Staff conduct seven different planning studies, as well as compliance, seams and ad hoc studies. They are also responsible for resource adequacy analysis and model builds.

SCRIPT is expected to consider options to redesign those processes and produce a report with high-level recommendations by September 2021.

“We need to see how we can step back and integrate all the transmission functions we have,” said Casey Cathey, SPP’s director of system planning. “Everything we do has a reason. We have a reason for a GI process. We have a reason for reliability planning. The question is, how can we do it better?”

Staff are working on a planning roadmap to be presented to the board in January. SCRIPT is an important first step, Vice President of Engineering Antoine Lucas said.

“We will be looking for the SCRIPT to prioritize those initiatives and drive solutions through the working groups in an effective manner,” he said.

The SPC has also created the Energy Storage Resource Task Force to determine the strategic use of storage as capacity and in potential support of the grid. The task force is scheduled to complete its work in the first quarter of 2021.