System Planning & Operations

April 20, 2011

Jay Caspary

jcaspary@spp.org

501.614.3220

3 Interconnections / 8 NERC Regions

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ISO / RTO Map

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Annual Average Wind Speed - 80 meters

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Need for Transmission

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High levels of variable generation will require significant transmission additionsand reinforcements.

Historical 5-Year Plans Compared to Actual

Miles Added (200 kV > greater)

0

2,000

4,000

6,000

8,000

10,000

12,000

14,000

16,000

18,000

1990-9

4

1991-9

5

1992-9

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1993-9

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1994-9

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1995-9

9

1996-0

0

1997-0

1

1998-0

2

1999-0

3

2000-0

4

2001-0

5

2002-0

6

2003-0

7

2004-0

8

2005-0

9

2006-1

0

2007-1

1

2008-1

2

2009-1

3

Cir

cu

it-M

ile

s

5 year Plan Actual Miles Added

2009 5-year Plan:

2013 Planned Projections

ChallengeInterconnect variable energy resources

in remote areasSmooth the variable generation output

across a broad geographical region and resource portfolio

Deliver ramping capability and ancillary services from inside and outside a Balancing Area to equalize supply and demand.

Construct/site/permit the needed transmission and supporting facilities to deliver power across long distances.

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345 kV+ Transmission Growth at a Glance

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345 kV+ Transmission Growth at a Glance

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345 kV+ Transmission Growth at a Glance

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345 kV+ Transmission Growth at a Glance

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345 kV+ Transmission Growth at a Glance

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15

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Projects with Notifications to Construct

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EWITS Scenario 2

Merchant Developers like Clean Line are Proposing Large HVDC Projects

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Future in SPP

• Renewable development beyond member needs of 12GW in SPP will depend on level of exports. While focus to date has been wind, solar will be next, then…

• Future is bright with more robust planning and certainty of cost allocations, but we need smart grid applications and better management of data to inform decisions to minimize renewable curtailments in advance of grid build-out and to manage flows using new technology, e.g., HVDC, as well as system reconfiguration/ optimization tools

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Where do we stand today…• NERC’s evolution and today’s Culture of Compliance

• Conservative industry focused on capacity needs with deterministic metrics despite the advent of intermittent energy resources and probabilistic tools

• Tariff requires lowest cost solution to provide requested service, therefore economies of scope/scale for lumpy transmission get lost. Is good enough OK?

• Organized and Bilateral Markets (No SMD)

• Regional Planning is working and improving, but regional cost allocation has lead to a focus on lowest initial cost solutions and little value for flexibility or “no regrets” plans

• Land Rush for transmission ROWs22

There is no…

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The solution will be…

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What’s on the horizon…

• Land use/environmental pressures will require transparent planning & unprecedented collaboration among all parties

• Asset management with aging infrastructure will be a challenge, but need headroom to upgrade existing facilities

• Effective use of new and existing ROWs will be key success factor, but there is no incentive/mechanism to rightsize key projects in critical corridors, particularly for joint projects. May require national leadership or legislated mandates to get the best lines in best corridors.

• Inter-Regional Planning in process, but may not be broad enough and won’t necessarily result in any projects

• Smart Grid applications for transmission are promising 25

Asset Management and Grid Efficiencies

• Need wide area monitoring and proactive controls

• Losses are 24/7 and have marginal impacts/costs even if average approaches/allocations are used. The long term consequences of lowering system losses with an efficient network using larger/advanced conductors are huge and will never be captured with incremental assessments, short term forecasts and/or high discount rates

• Benefits of a robust and flexible EHV transmission network will never be captured with pristine models and data inputs. Things happen, even if its difficult to project with any certainty…

• Can we afford to undervalue transmission anymore?26

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Appendix

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SPPNORTH_STH IS ONE OF THE MOST BINDING CONSTRAINTS IN THE TEXAS PANHANDLE OF SPP WHICH IS AGGREVATED BY WIND DEVELOPMENT IN ADVANCE OF APPROVED MAJOR EHV TRANSMISSION PROJECTS EXPECTED IN 2014

Technology Advances to Improve Siting/Planning

• Preliminary routing studies and siting assessments can benefit from GIS based software packages to improve quality of initial planning studies/recommendations

• Compact configurations capturing benefits of HSIL design may reduce ROW, but that decision makes maintenance/upgrades difficult, if not impossible.

• FACTS and SVCs can improve operations to better manage flows and system performance, but there are no or insufficent incentives to deploy new technologies

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Ways to Increase Corridor Capabilities

• Advanced Conductors

• High Surge Impedence Loading (HSIL) Tower Design

• Other Ways to Increase SIL

• Conductor Bundling / Spacing

• Phase Compaction

• Bundle Expansion (EXB)

• Non-Conventional Bundle Shapes

• Reactive Compensation / Controls

• SVCs, STATCOM, etc.

High Surge Impedance LoadingPower Transmission Lines Natural High

o The ‘Positive Sequence Impedance’ is decreased by

o Decreasing the “phase self impedance”

o Increasing the “mutual impedance among phases”.

o Can cause a theoretical increase in the ‘Surge Impedance Loading’ of 100-200%

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2

Z

vSIL

phasesamongimpedanceMutualimpedanceselfPhase ZZZ _____1

Phase Compaction (Compact) Increase Surge Impedance Line (ISIL)

o Decrease distance between phases

o This increases the coupling among phases

o The increased coupling increases the “mutual impedance among phases”

o The increased “mutual impedance” decreases the Positive Sequence Impedance

o Can increase Surge Impedance Loading by 20-25%

phasesamongimpedanceMutualimpedanceselfPhase ZZZ _____1

Bundle Expansion (EXB) Expanded Bundle Transmission Line (EBTL)

o Focuses on the “Optimization of the Electric field in a conductor’s surface by expanding the bundles“

o The optimized electric field decreases the “phase self impedance”

o The phase self-impedance causes a decrease of the Positive Sequence Impedance

o Increases Surge Impedance Loading 15-70%

phasesamongimpedanceMutualimpedanceselfPhase ZZZ _____1

Non-Conventional Bundle Shapes

o “Optimization of Electric field in a conductor’s surface by using expanded bundles and un-conventional/Asymmetrical bundle shapes“

o The optimized electric field decreases the “phase self impedance”

o The decreased phase self-impedance causes a decrease the Positive Sequence Impedance

o Can increase the Surge Impedance Loading 100-200% when used in conjunction with Phase Compaction and Bundle Expansion

phasesamongimpedanceMutualimpedanceselfPhase ZZZ _____1