The Southwest Power Pool's (SPP) Transmission Working Group (TWG) has passed a unanimous motion approving the reliability studies completed as part of the development of the Plains & Eastern Clean Line, a transmission project that will deliver up to 3.5 GW of clean energy across the midwestern and southern U.S.
The $2 billion project will involve the construction of a 750-mile, overhead, high-voltage direct-current (HVDC) transmission line that will transport wind energy and solar power from western Oklahoma, northern Texas and southwestern Kansas to utilities and customers in Tennessee, Arkansas, and other markets in the mid-South and Southeast U.S.
These interconnection studies, conducted by Siemens PTI, stem from SPP Criteria 3.5, which requires entities requesting transmission interconnections to work with the SPP, the TWG and affected parties to ensure grid reliability. SPP Criteria 3.5 studies were initiated in May 2010, when Clean Line requested that SPP study the connection of the Plains & Eastern transmission project to the SPP grid in the Oklahoma Panhandle.
"The acceptance of these studies by the SPP Transmission Working Group represents the culmination of two years of collaborating with SPP and affected parties to ensure that the Plains & Eastern Project can be interconnected in a reliable manner," notes Wayne Galli, vice president at Clean Line.
