SPP’s Board of Directors has approved the winter-weather staging of a pair of transmission projects that have been held up since October by stakeholder concerns.

SPP stakeholders have endorsed a pair of winter-weather staging dates for transmission projects after two months of discussions and negotiations that delayed their approval by the Board of Directors.

SPP’s Board of Directors approved the grid operator’s “historic” $7.65 billion package of transmission projects, but delayed a decision on a need date for two of the projects after stakeholders pushed back on staff’s staging recommendations.

SPP stakeholders have endorsed what one member called an “historic” transmission plan that will eclipse any previous portfolio by a factor of five with a projected cost of $7.65 billion.

After five fruitless attempts to agree on joint transmission projects across their seams, MISO and SPP will use what they call a “blended joint model” in parallel with existing SPP and MISO regional models.

SPP is considering a 765-kV solution and several 500-kV proposals in its Permian Basin footprint in Texas and New Mexico as it dabbles with extra-high-voltage transmission lines.

The Resource and Energy Adequacy Leadership (REAL) Team, a cross-section group of regulators, directors and stakeholders, is the answer to SPP's No. 1 strategic priority: resource adequacy.

SPP staff and stakeholders spent much of last week’s virtual Markets and Operations Policy Committee meeting discussing resource adequacy.

SPP and MISO plan to apply for grants from the Department of Energy to help fund five transmission projects recently identified in their JTIQ work.