Oklahoma Corporation Commissioner David was elected this week to serve as an officer on a Regional State Committee of the Southwest Power Pool, the 14-state electric grid that includes Oklahoma.
She was chosen secretary/treasurer at the groups’ quarterly meeting held in Little Rock, Arkansas. Her new term on the Regional State Committee will begin Jan. 1, 2025.
The Regional State Committee of the SPP elected its 2025 officers: Pat O’Connell of the New Mexico Public Regulation Commission will serve as RSC president and Chuck Hutchison of the Nebraska Power Review Board will serve as vice president. The elections also came on the 20th anniversary of the SPP’s designation as a regional transmission organization.
SPP’s RSC comprises retail regulatory commissioners from states across the RTO’s service territory. It provides collective state regulatory agency input on matters of regional importance related to the development and operation of the regional power grid.
Representatives of SPP’s member organizations elect board members on staggered terms and stakeholder representatives that advise the board via the SPP Members Committee.
Board chair John Cupparo, Susan Certoma and Ben Trowbridge were all reelected to three-year board terms beginning Jan. 1, 2025.
The following individuals were elected to the Members Committee where they will represent sectors of SPP member companies:
- Investor-owned utility sector: Tim Wilson (Liberty Utilities) and Denise Buffington (Evergy Companies)
- Cooperative sector: Zac Perkins (Tri-County Electric Cooperative) and Mike Wise (Golden Spread Electric Cooperative)
- State agency sector: Robert Pick (Nebraska Public Power District)
- Independent power producer/marketer sector: Kevin Smith (Tenaska Power Services) and Brett White (Pine Gate Renewables)
- Public interest/alternative power sector: Christy Walsh (Natural Resources Defense Council)
SPP formed in 1941 and earned the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission’s RTO designation in October 2004, allowing the organization to provide more reliability services and economic benefits to its members. Over the last two decades, SPP has expanded from seven to 14 states; directed investment of $12.5 billion in transmission with benefit-to-cost ratios of 5-to-1 or better; launched multiple wholesale energy markets in the Eastern and Western Interconnections, which have produced more than $10 billion in cumulative savings; and reliably facilitated a tenfold increase in wind energy.