OKLAHOMA CITY — SPP completed its first international transaction late last year, thanks to Canadian interconnections that came with the Integrated System’s addition to the RTO last year.
SPP Executive Vice President and COO Carl Monroe told the Regional State Committee last week that SaskPower, the principal electric utility in Saskatchewan, came to the RTO’s aid during a mid-December “emergency situation” in North Dakota. Monroe said SaskPower was able to “facilitate power” during a storm and after some transmission outages via existing interconnections in the state.
The RTO would not divulge additional details, claiming market sensitivities.
Bruce Rew, vice president of operations for SPP, told the committee the Integrated System also has helped with market-to-market congestion between the RTO and MISO.
The system “is very integrated with MISO in the upper Midwest,” Rew said. “The market solutions with IS seem to be working very well for us.”
SPP CEO Nick Brown thanked the committee for “being instrumental in helping us engage with your states” as the grid operator prepares to help its region comply with EPA’s Clean Power Plan.
“We, as SPP staff, have been asked to assess the impacts of implementation,” Brown reminded the committee. “We do continue to urge regional approaches over state-by-state approaches … but the biggest challenge for us is we don’t know what to plan for yet.”
Last week’s quarterly RSC meeting was the first led by Patrick Lyons, chairman of the New Mexico Public Regulation Commission. Lyons welcomed Nebraska Power Review Board member Dennis Grennan as the committee’s 10th and newest member.
— Tom Kleckner
