The Southwest Power Pool, “Then and Now”

Yesterday 28 people gathered in the City Hall in Garden City to hear a presentation on the Southwest Power Pool. Carl Monroe, Executive Vice President and Chief Operating Officer spoke about the history of the SPP, where we are today and where the future of energy is taking us. Some of the statistics Carl used were astonishing and some were scary. 63,000MW of wind is in the generator interconnection que (not all of which will be built).  The peak load in SPP is just over 50,000MW and we already have 20,000MW installed wind generation. Wind set another penetration record on April 27, 2019 at 67.28%. Carl spoke of the decline of coal energy and the increase in wind, gas and solar power.

Many thanks to Garden City Public Utilities Director Mike Muirhead and the Garden City Public Utilities Advisory Board for hosting this well attended event. Several KMEA members cities attended as well as several members of the KMEA Executive Committee and KMEA staff. It was a great time in Garden City and the pizza wasn’t bad either.