The SPP Capacity Margin Task Force conducted its penultimate meeting last week as it continues to set up the stakeholder group that will replace it in determining how low the RTO can go with its planning reserve margin.
The task force won board and member approval in April to lower SPP’s planning reserve margin — previously called the capacity margin — from 13.6% to 12%. The change is expected to save load-serving members about $86 million a year in capacity costs. (See “Lowered Reserve Margin Promises $86M in Annual Savings,” SPP Board of Directors Briefs.)
The CMTF will hold its last meeting June 30, turning over its work to the newly created Supply Adequacy Working Group (SAWG). The group will be responsible for developing and implementing processes that ensure “reliable supply of capacity necessary to meet demand and planning reserve margin requirements/methodologies in SPP.”
The SAWG will also be tasked with ensuring SPP’s processes and policies meet NERC and North American Energy Standards Board standards.
A separate small group is continuing its work on staff’s Resource Adequacy Workbook (RAW). The workbook will be used to gather load-serving entities’ planning reserve margin requirement calculations and data needed for the Energy Information Administration’s Form 411 (Coordinated Bulk Power Supply and Demand Program Report).
SPP’s vice president of engineering, Lanny Nickell, asked the task force for additional input on calculating planning reserve margin requirements for purchases and sales, which are calculated differently than they are for the EIA 411.
– Tom Kleckner
