Energy Biz - March/April 2008 - (Page 28) It’s Spp’s Vision THE FUTURE OF TR ANSMISSION EXPANSION BY LES DILL AHUNT Y the Southwest Power Pool has a vision for the grId future of transmission expansion. It involves an interregional network of extra-high voltage transmission lines bringing electricity, including potentially tens of thousands of renewable megawatts, to load centers. Such a system would allow more electricity to be moved efficiently across the grid, equivalent to traffic flowing on a six lane interstate superhighway compared with the state highway grid of today. SPP’s mission is to help members work together to keep the lights on, today and in the future. Transmission planning plays an integral part in our mission, ensuring that the grid of the not-so-distant future can meet the evolving needs of load-serving entities. SPP, which serves as a Federal Energy Regulatory Commission regional transmission organization and a North American Electric Reliability Corp. regional reliability organization, conducts ten-year transmission planning studies, as required by NERC. However, we recognized the need to develop a longer-term approach to planning. We wanted to look further into the future, to the year 2026 and beyond, to address issues of regional and interregional importance. Last summer, SPP announced to stakeholders plans for an extra-high voltage overlay study that will provide the blueprints for the future of the transmission grid for SPP and its neighboring regions. This report, independently prepared by Quanta Technology and PowerWorld Corp., strategically assesses SPP’s future reliability and capacity needs. To meet those needs, it suggests overlaying the SPP footprint with a 500- and 765-kilovolt transmission system and integrating it with the existing extrahigh voltage systems of Entergy, MISO and PJM Interconnection. An SPP extra-high voltage overlay would enhance reliability with a stronger transmission system for the communities within SPP’s footprint. It would provide greater access to abundant, environmentally friendly, renewable energy from existing and potential wind farms in the South Central portion of the United States. It also would enable SPP to become an even more integral part of an enhanced transmission system extending across the Eastern Interconnection as well as the Electric Reliability Council of Texas and Western Electricity Coordinating Council markets, increasing access to a variety of generation resources. We are updating the study to include a full economic assessment of alternatives, including a 345-kilovolt option, along with forecasts in an upcoming American Wind Energy Association and National Renewable Energy Laboratory wind report. SPP and its stakeholders will reassess the extra-high voltage overlay study every two to three years to ensure that it remains on track and valid. The extra-high voltage study meets the regional planning principle of the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission’s Order 890, which requires transmission providers to coordinate with interconnected systems to share plans and identify enhancements. JOinT PL anning The extra-high voltage study will do much to meet the long-term planning needs of SPP’s system, but the scope of such a project stretches far beyond SPP’s borders. We recognize the need to work with neighboring entities to plan for and build transmission on a continental scale. In 2007, SPP, in conjunction with the Midwest ISO, PJM Interconnection, and the Tennessee Valley Authority, initiated a joint coordinated system plan to focus on interregional, collaborative transmission expansion plans to address reliability needs. SPP represents its regional transmission organization footprint as well as the planning interests of Entergy Services and E.ON in the planning effort. Plan participants will develop common power system analysis models, regularly conduct a coordinated regional transmission-planning study and meet at least semi-annually to review and coordinate transmission-planning activities. In addition, they will establish working groups as necessary to address specific issues and conduct the necessary stakeholder review and approval process. The plan participants are collaborating with the Department of Energy and the National Renewable Energy Laboratory on a major wind integration and transmission-planning study, expected to be published this year. The study will determine the long-term transmission expansion plans needed to support a 20 percent or higher national renewable portfolio standard, and evaluate and quantify the operational impacts, ancillary service requirements, and reliability margin impacts associated with large wind development in remote portions of the United States that have the best wind resources. The study will also address specific questions. What are the benefits of long-distance transmission that moves large quantities of remote wind energy to urban markets? Does geographical diversity help reduce the system variability and uncertainty associated with intermittent resources? What additional system operational impacts and costs are imposed by wind generation variability and uncertainty? How does wind generation capacity value affect reliability? We will face challenges as we move forward with extrahigh voltage and joint planning projects, the first of which will be determining who will pay for the upgrades. SPP’s regional state committee has been working on solutions to this question in recent years. In 2004, the committee determined a cost-sharing mechanism for reliability upgrades that shares a portion of costs across the SPP region. That 2004 initiative 28 E n E rgyB i z March/April 2008
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