In advance of this weekend’s winter storm, the Southwest Power Pool — the regional transmission operator that coordinates energy delivery across 14 states, including parts of Missouri — has issued advisories to its partner utilities.
The directions do not require the public to conserve energy, but are intended to make power providers aware of potential threats to reliability.
Southwest Power Pool spokesperson Derek Wingfield said even with heavy snowfall forecast, he doesn’t think power transmission will be affected.
“Right now, we actually are not forecasting any significant impacts to reliability at the regional level,” he said. “We expect that we will have enough generation available to meet demand.”
However, Wingfield said local weather conditions, and energy reliability may vary on a utility-by-utility basis.
The resource advisory has been issued due to forecasted temperatures and “potential for resource outages and reduction in wind output due to possible icing,” according to the Southwest Power Pool alert.
Wingfield said temperatures are forecasted to be 10-15 degrees below average across much of the company’s service territory, which usually results in increased heating demand as folks stay inside — that demand could linger.
“We are forecasting a week out and more, and then as we get closer and closer to real time, obviously we're constantly updating those forecasts to predict, what's the weather going to do? How much electricity do we think will be needed?,” he said.
The resource advisory is a message to SPP’s partner utilities, including companies in Missouri, with recommendations for how to maintain reliability during unusual circumstances. Weather and resource advisories are the least severe of the alerts the company issues.
The resource advisory will be in place from Monday afternoon to midday Wednesday.
