Agenda
All events are Mountain Time.
Wednesday, April 2
6:00 – 9:00 pm MST
Cocktail Reception and Dinner
Thursday, April 3
8:00 – 9:00 am MST
Breakfast
In this short video from his keynote, Lanny discusses SPP’s historic Integrated Transmission Plan (ITP). The recently approved $7.7 billion project portfolio includes 2,333 miles of new transmission and 495 miles of transmission rebuilds to meet growing electricity demand and improve grid resilience. He highlights the impressive value and benefits of the transmission portfolio, including the expected economic impact of $88-95 billion in reduced APC, and the fact every dollar invested in the new portfolio will drive $8-9 of value. “That’s a good deal. It’s a really good deal."
Now let's talk about transmission planning. We just completed our 2024 integrated transmission plan in October of last year. The amount of investment while it pales in comparison to MISA, I'm looking at my friend Aubrey sitting over there in the back, for SPP and the footprint that we have, this is a big, big deal.
It's a big amount of investment, 7.7 billion dollars, five times larger than the previous highest amount of investment in a portfolio, so it's a big deal. What's more important than just the cost, and I get challenged by talking about the 7.7 billion all the time by some of our planning folks, don't just talk about the cost, talk about this number right here, 88 to 95 billion dollars of reduced APC. That's an eight to almost nine benefit to cost range for every dollar invested, eight dollars to nine dollars of value.
That's a good deal. It's a really good deal, and that's what we ought to be talking about. When we're talking to consumers who might not want to see a transmission line in their backyard, that's what we need to remind them about.
One, this portfolio provides resiliency, and by the way, it's the first time we've ever incorporated resiliency as a focus and as a goal in any transmission portfolio we've ever provided, so it provides insurance, insurance that we can not only survive but thrive during the next winter storm or the next summer heat dome that sits across our footprint, provides that extra insurance, and it's well worth it by the way. How many of y'all remember winter storm Uri and the fact that 250 lives were lost in Texas as a result of that? Eight billion dollars is probably well worth it, even if it just saves one life, it's probably well worth it. We're not even capturing that benefit, okay? We're just talking about the reduced energy or the these energy savings that you get.
That's the eight to nine bc ratio. The return on saving lives, that's what this is all about. That's why we're here.
That's why we're in this industry. We don't just provide life enhancing power. It makes all of our lives better.
We provide life sustaining power and that's that's why I do the job that I do today because that's very important to me.
9:00 – 10:00 am
Keynote Address
Lanny Nickell, CEO of Southwest Power Pool (SPP)
10:00 – 11:15 am
Panel 1 – AI & Data Center Demand: What Does It Mean For Transmission?
Panelists:
Patrick Arness, Federal Affairs, Dominion Energy
Cy McNeill, Director, Federal Energy Policy, Data Center Coalition
Aubrey Johnson, VP of System & Resource Planning, MISO Energy
Moderator:
Michael Tierney, Account Director, Continuum Industries
11:15 – 11:30 am
Coffee Break
11:30 – 12:30 pm
Panel 2 – Energy Decision-making in the New Administration and the Roles of FERC, DOE & the National Energy Dominance Council
Panelists:
Craig Glazer, VP of Federal Government Policy, PJM Interconnection
Maria Robinson, Former Director of DOE Grid Deployment Office
Norman Bay, Head of Energy Regulatory & Enforcement Group, Willkie Farr & Gallagher
Moderator:
Zack Hale, Federal Energy Policy Reporter, S&P Global Platts
12:30 – 2:00 pm
Lunch
Location
The Spring Member Meeting will be held at The Broadmoor in Colorado Springs, CO
This is an invitation-only event.
Event Program
WIRES Spring 2025 Member Meeting Agenda & Program [PDF, 1,013.82 KB]
