SPP COVID-19 Response Update - April 16, 2020
Stakeholders –
As an example of the ways our organization has adapted to the COVID-19 pandemic, this week we conducted our first large, quarterly stakeholder meetings entirely as web conferences. SPP prides itself on its relationship-based culture, and I’m so pleased with how well that culture helped us to make our Markets and Operations Policy Committee and Strategic Planning Committee meetings a success. The initial feedback and effective meeting outcomes suggest that despite the crazy world we’re all living in now, SPP is well-equipped to continue to help our members work together to keep the lights on today, and in the future.
Like the rest of you, our staff anxiously awaits the end of the pandemic and our collective return to business as usual, and we’re already developing plans to ensure that transition is executed in a safe and orderly fashion. While we don’t know when we will begin that transition, there’s no doubt we will continue to focus on our roles and responsibilities to keep SPP moving forward all along the way.
To date, we are thankful that we still have had no confirmed cases of COVID-19 among our staff, and the SPP system continues to operate reliably. As reported to the MOPC on April 14, our analysis has shown approximately a 4-6% reduction in load across our system over the previous couple of weeks, and we’ve seen an uptick in the cancellation of planned generation and transmission outages. We’re working closely with our members and market participants to both monitor and adjust to real-time conditions and to facilitate reliability over the long term. We’re thankful for our partnerships with you and will keep the lines of communication open.
You can stay updated on our pandemic response at spp.org/covid-19. Please contact your customer relations representative or email communication@spp.org with questions.
Take good care,
Barbara