'We're Going To Need All Resources': Southwest Power Pool Prepares For Winter Storm

The Southwest Power Pool is the regional power transmission group that keeps the lights and heat on during cold winter days.

It serves several states many of which are also seeing a drop in temperatures. Right now the SPP is under a resource advisory and we asked Executive Vice President Lanny Nickell to join News On 6 with what that means for Oklahomans and how the SPP is planning on keeping the power on.

What Does A Resource Advisory Mean For the Southwest Power Pool?

Jonathan Cooper: So what does this advisory mean?

Lanny Nickell: It means that we are working closely with our member electric utilities to ensure that all resources, all generating resources are as available as they can be, in preparation for what we know is going to be a really cold event, and in which we know that electricity usage is going to be really high.

And we're going to need all resources available to help us withstand that storm.

Will The Power Pool Shutdown In Oklahoma This Weekend?

Cooper: Now I know that a lot of our viewers remember back in February of 2021, it was super cold then. So much so that it was one of the busiest times for you guys in your guys's history. You guys actually had to turn the power off for only about four hours or so. Could that happen again? I mean, a lot of people may be wondering if that is a possibility for you guys to have to maybe turn off power to conserve it.

Nickell: You know, Winter Storm Uri was a once in 80-year event for us. Having said that, we also had Winter Storm Elliot during the December of '22, it wasn't quite as bad as Uri, we were able to withstand that particular winter storm. And in fact, we reliably served an all-time peak demand of over 47,000 megawatts during a winter season for Winter Storm Elliot.

This particular storm right now is being projected to be more similar to Elliot than Uri in that we're not expecting to see as extreme temperatures across much of the footprint like we saw in Uri. And so we don't think the events going to be as long as Uri was as well. And that helps us. It helps us knowing that we have a shorter period of time, less extreme temperatures to prepare for as we try to get all of that generation that we need to be available, available to serve consumption across the 14-state footprint that we serve.

How Does Southwest Power Pool Provide Energy For 14 States?

Cooper: That's good to know, you mentioned you have several states in there as well. How is the SPP able to how much is the SPP able to handle?

Nickell: You know, that's a great question. It all depends on how available our resources are. Let me give you an example of how availability changes.

Almost half of our generation capability that we depend on during extreme conditions, is served by gas generation. And so that same natural gas fuel that supplies a lot of our generation is also what is being used by consumers to heat their homes. So there's a little bit of a competition that happens there to the extent that we need it, but it's also being needed by consumers.

It could make our gas generation less available. By the same token, we have a tremendous amount of wind generation, and when the wind is blowing, which we expect it to blow during this upcoming event that can more than offset the lack of supply that could occur from the gas generation that we have.

We also have a tremendous amount of coal, we're not hearing yet. Any expected freezing conditions on coal piles that would cause those generators to not be able to produce. But it's all variable. It all depends.

That's that's really the answer to your question. It just depends on the availability of the fuel that is needed to support those generators that we have.

Cooper: Okay. Lanie. Nicole, thank you so much for taking a few minutes of your time this afternoon. We really appreciate it and a lot of great information as well.