SPP Projects Confidence in Meeting Energy Needs This Winter
LITTLE ROCK, ARK. — Southwest Power Pool (SPP), responsible for coordinating electric reliability in a 14-state area in the central United States, expects to have enough generation to meet energy demand this winter.
SPP conducts an assessment each year to identify and mitigate threats to energy reliability during the winter season lasting from December to March. The analysis considers factors such as historical and predicted future electricity use, weather forecasts, the variability of available wind energy, drought conditions and generation and transmission outages.
Based on its assessment results, SPP anticipates a 98.5% probability that it will have sufficient resources to meet the projected peak demand for electricity and maintain energy reserves throughout the upcoming winter season. SPP further anticipates an even greater chance that it can meet region-wide demand with the help of reserves if needed.
This winter’s forecast represents an increase in SPP’s operational certainty over the past two seasonal assessments (winter 2023/24 and summer 2024). Weather forecasts, peak demand projections, expected generation availability and other trends suggest the region will have a greater margin between electricity demand and generating capacity than in the previous two peak seasons.
“While this forecast presents a positive outlook for electricity customers throughout the SPP footprint, we must continue to be vigilant and plan for growing power demands in the future,” said Lanny Nickell, executive vice president and chief operating officer at SPP. “We can never say for sure when extreme weather events, such as what we have experienced in recent years, may materialize. SPP is doing everything it can to be prepared to meet customer needs.”
Nickell emphasized that recent resource adequacy improvements and the transmission expansion plan approved by the SPP Board of Directors in October demonstrates SPP’s commitment to regional electricity reliability. SPP recently produced Our Generational Challenge: A Reliable Future for Electricity, a comprehensive report summarizing its work to leverage diverse energy resources to meet the ever-rising demand for electricity.
SPP announced its projections Monday during the Winter 2024/25 Reliability Forecast and Emergency Communications webinar with stakeholders.
If conditions threaten reliability, SPP will communicate with members, stakeholders and the public through the grid notice email distribution list and social media. Current grid conditions can be found at www.SPP.org/grid-conditions.