Page 4 - Electric News March April 2021

4 DISTRICT NEWS
Rolling Outages
Why Were They Necessary?
wholesale power supplier is an active member of this organization. The service territory of SPP spans 546,000 square miles, and members come from all or parts of 14 states.
Transmission lines do not stop at a state’s border. Nebraska utilities are responsible for part of this interconnected transmission grid. SPP and other RTO’s were formed through the direction of Congress and FERC. Like RTO’s in other parts of the country, SPP oversees the bulk electric system and wholesale power market in the central portion of the country. Instead of working as small isolated islands, or balancing areas, utilities have voluntarily given up some local operating responsibility to participate in these regional power pools. These not-for-profit organizations dispatch power plants across a large geographic area and serve as the market hub for buying and selling wholesale power.
When did Nebraska
Bruce Vitosh
General Manager & CEO
What is the Southwest
NPPD, along with OPPD and LES, joined SPP in 2009 and began participating in the SPP’s Integrated Energy Marketplace in 2014. Each utility previously operated as its own balancing authority with the responsibility to manage the bulk electric system within its area of responsibility. This balancing of generation to system loading ensures that voltage and frequency standards are being met and customer loads are being properly served in a stable and reliable manner. Upon joining SPP, utility members transferred the generation balancing responsibility to SPP. While SPP does not own transmission or generation assets, it acts in the same manner as the Federal Air Traffic Control system to assure the safe operations of air traffic. As a balancing authority, SPP allows NPPD and its customers benefits such as cost savings, enhanced reliability, availability of a diverse regional generation portfolio and easier access to marketing opportunities for excess energy.
SPP’s broad footprint helps ensure energy is available to members in the event the member’s generation is not able to meet its load. One example of this situation occurred in the summer of 2020 for NPPD when an unplanned emergency outage affected the state’s largest electric generator, NPPD’s Gerald Gentleman Station (GGS). Being part of a multi-state electric grid helped manage this challenge at a lower cost and at less risk. If the state’s utilities did not have the support of the other members of SPP
Power Pool?
During the week of February 15, 2021, the Southwest Power Pool (SPP) was frequently mentioned and discussed by many Nebraskans including Norris customers due to limited rolling outages on February 15 and 16, 2021. SPP is a Regional Transmission Organization (RTO) mandated by the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC). SPP exists to ensure that reliable supplies of power, adequate transmission infrastructure and competitive wholesale electricity prices provide benefit to its members. Nebraska Public Power District (NPPD), who is Norris’
Utilities Join SPP?
Southwest Power Pool Date: February 19, 2021
The Southwest Power Pool region extends from North Dakota to the northern portions of Texas.
NORRIS ELECTRIC NEWS