Kara Fornstrom to serve as SPP director of state regulatory policy
LITTLE ROCK, ARK. — Southwest Power Pool (SPP) has chosen Wyoming Public Service Commission Chairman Kara Fornstrom to serve as director of state regulatory policy effective Jan. 19, 2021.
In her new role, Fornstrom will lead SPP’s state regulatory policy efforts and support the company’s work on related regional transmission organization policy matters, interacting with a wide array of stakeholder groups and organizations.
“Kara has extensive experience in state regulatory and policy matters involving the electric industry and will provide effective counsel for our organization,” said Paul Suskie, executive vice president of regulatory policy and general counsel.
Fornstrom has more than 20 years of experience advocating for natural resources and electricity issues. She most recently served as chairman of the Wyoming Public Service Commission, where she also served on the National Association of Regulatory Utility Commissioners board of directors and the Committee on Electricity and is a former president of the Western Conference of Public Service Commissioners.
She represented Wyoming as chair of the Western Interconnection Regional Advisory Board, vice chair of the Energy Imbalance Market’s Body of State Regulators, Class 5 Member of the Western Electricity Coordinating Council Advisory Committee, and a member of the Committee on Regional Electric Power Cooperation and the Northern Tier Transmission Group.
“It’s an honor to join the SPP team of great professionals and work with stakeholders on the important state regulatory policy issues that are critical to the market’s success. I’m especially grateful for the opportunity given SPP’s exciting expansion into the Western Interconnection,” Fornstrom said.
Before her career at the Wyoming Public Service Commission, Fornstrom co-founded Hageman and Brighton, P.C., a law firm focused on water and natural resource issues. She also served as attorney for the Wyoming Attorney General’s Office, Water Division. Fornstrom is a graduate of the University of Nebraska College of Law and earned her undergraduate degree in small business management from the University of Wyoming.
About SPP: Southwest Power Pool, Inc. is a regional transmission organization: a not-for-profit corporation mandated by the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission to ensure reliable supplies of power, adequate transmission infrastructure and competitive wholesale electricity prices on behalf of its members. SPP manages the electric grid across 17 central and western U.S. states and provides energy services on a contract basis to customers in both the Eastern and Western Interconnections. The company’s headquarters are in Little Rock, Arkansas. Learn more at SPP.org.
