SPP has issued its second conservative operations advisory this summer for its entire 14-state Eastern Interconnection footprint, effective noon CT Wednesday through 10 p.m. CT Friday.

The grid operator said it declared the advisory to hot temperatures, high loads and wind forecast uncertainty. That allows the RTO’s balancing authority to use greater unit commitment notification timeframes that include commitments before the day-ahead market and/or committing resources in reliability status.

No surprise, July is forecasted to be another hot month. | The Weather Channel

 

SPP issues conservative operations advisories when it needs to operate its system conservatively based on weather, environmental, operational, terrorist, cyber or other events. Generation and transmission operators have been provided instructions on applicable procedures and must report any limitations, fuel shortages or concerns.

July temperatures are expected to be above average and forecasts from the Texas Gulf Coast through the Central Plains and into Wyoming, according to the Weather Channel.

The Midwest Reliability Organization’s regional summer assessment, released last week, included SPP among the region’s balancing authorities likely to face capacity shortfalls this summer requiring external energy assistance or other emergency measures. (See MRO Warns Energy Emergencies Likely in Summer.)

Saturday’s advisory replaced a resource advisory issued Friday for the same period. SPP said conditions warranted the escalation to conservative operations.

Neither advisory requires public conservation.

The RTO also declared a conservative operations alert for June 21-24. It has issued four resources advisories since late spring.