“A proud graduate of Hope High School”, as he referred to himself, to the crowd gathered at the Hempstead County Economic Development Corporation luncheon Wednesday, talked Southwest Power Pool language.
Nicholas A. Brown, Hope native, SPP president and CEO, was the keynote speaker for the annual luncheon at the University of Arkansas Community College at Hope.
Brown asked the crowd how many had heard of Southwest Power Pool. He received a better response than he said he would have had he asked several years earlier. It was a complex, but interesting and intricate explanation by Brown as he explained the purpose of the non-profit organization and the vital role SPP plays in “helping members work together to keep lights on today and in the future.”
“Helping members” are the key words to describe what the SPP does for it's member base that consists of investor owned utilities, cooperatives, municipals, state agencies, independent transmission companies, independent power producers/wholesale generation marketers and three contract participants, according to Brown.
He also called the organization the “air traffic controllers” of a transmission grid that covers 255,000 square miles of service territory. The “footprint” consists of Kansas, Missouri, Illinois, New Mexico, Oklahoma, Arkansas,Texas, Louisiana and Mississippi.
Brown pointed out what he called “a perfect storm of uncertain and complex issues” that the organization works daily to resolve, improve or track. He addressed demand growth as the first issue.
“Trying to predict what you as consumer are going to use in the next instant, the next minute, the next day, next week.... our computers' models are constantly being updated to help us forecast your very often random consumption,” Brown said.
Another topic addressed was aging infrastructure.
“Over 50 percent of the generating capacity in the United States is over the expected life term of 45 years. For some utilities it is 40 years. You think of the Turk plant that is being built and the arguments on why we need that energy, I almost have to laugh, the engineer in me, when people question the need for that power plant. That's another story,” Brown said.
He presented a chart showing U.S. energy consumption. Electricity is 40 percent of U.S energy consumption,Brown explained, with a large portion of that being produced from coal, and smaller percentages from natural gas and nuclear energy.
Transportation garners 30 percent, all of which comes from oil.
The other 30 percent of consumption in the nation is raw heat. Brown said oil and gas is used to produce the heat.
He talked about the of lack of transmission capabilities.
“While it looks like there are a lot of transmissions on that map, please understand that those transmission lines were built for one purpose and one primary purpose only. That was by individual utilities to move energy from their own generating plants to their load centers,” Brown said.
He said the original reason any interconnections were made was in the case of a power failure, for a back up.
“This network was never designed to handle the type of wholesale power market we use it for today,” he said. “It does a nifty job, but it was never designed to do that. There is a lot of economic value we leave on the table because that network is not as robust as it could be.”
He addressed the key issue of international competition and trade balance.
“I don't know about you, but every time I look at our national trade balance deficit, I get more worried. And quite frankly, it's not so much for future generations anymore, that problem is growing and will continue to grow. We need to do what we can to promote energy independence for our nation,” Brown said.
|
|
|
“A proud graduate of Hope High School”, as he referred to himself, to the crowd gathered at the Hempstead County Economic Development Corporation luncheon Wednesday, talked Southwest Power Pool language.
Nicholas A. Brown, Hope native, SPP president and CEO, was the keynote speaker for the annual luncheon at the University of Arkansas Community College at Hope.
Brown asked the crowd how many had heard of Southwest Power Pool. He received a better response than he said he would have had he asked several years earlier. It was a complex, but interesting and intricate explanation by Brown as he explained the purpose of the non-profit organization and the vital role SPP plays in “helping members work together to keep lights on today and in the future.”
“Helping members” are the key words to describe what the SPP does for it's member base that consists of investor owned utilities, cooperatives, municipals, state agencies, independent transmission companies, independent power producers/wholesale generation marketers and three contract participants, according to Brown.
He also called the organization the “air traffic controllers” of a transmission grid that covers 255,000 square miles of service territory. The “footprint” consists of Kansas, Missouri, Illinois, New Mexico, Oklahoma, Arkansas,Texas, Louisiana and Mississippi.
Brown pointed out what he called “a perfect storm of uncertain and complex issues” that the organization works daily to resolve, improve or track. He addressed demand growth as the first issue.
“Trying to predict what you as consumer are going to use in the next instant, the next minute, the next day, next week.... our computers' models are constantly being updated to help us forecast your very often random consumption,” Brown said.
Another topic addressed was aging infrastructure.
“Over 50 percent of the generating capacity in the United States is over the expected life term of 45 years. For some utilities it is 40 years. You think of the Turk plant that is being built and the arguments on why we need that energy, I almost have to laugh, the engineer in me, when people question the need for that power plant. That's another story,” Brown said.
He presented a chart showing U.S. energy consumption. Electricity is 40 percent of U.S energy consumption,Brown explained, with a large portion of that being produced from coal, and smaller percentages from natural gas and nuclear energy.
Transportation garners 30 percent, all of which comes from oil.
The other 30 percent of consumption in the nation is raw heat. Brown said oil and gas is used to produce the heat.
He talked about the of lack of transmission capabilities.
“While it looks like there are a lot of transmissions on that map, please understand that those transmission lines were built for one purpose and one primary purpose only. That was by individual utilities to move energy from their own generating plants to their load centers,” Brown said.
He said the original reason any interconnections were made was in the case of a power failure, for a back up.
“This network was never designed to handle the type of wholesale power market we use it for today,” he said. “It does a nifty job, but it was never designed to do that. There is a lot of economic value we leave on the table because that network is not as robust as it could be.”
He addressed the key issue of international competition and trade balance.
“I don't know about you, but every time I look at our national trade balance deficit, I get more worried. And quite frankly, it's not so much for future generations anymore, that problem is growing and will continue to grow. We need to do what we can to promote energy independence for our nation,” Brown said.
