Southwest Power Pool board approves $8.6 billion transmission investment plan

The Southwest Power Pool board of directors has approved an $8.6 billion transmission portfolio that includes high-voltage projects to help the region address rising electricity demand and enhance grid reliability.

SPP's 2025 Integrated Transmission Plan tops the previous ITP in the size of total investment, which was authorized at $7.7 billion in 2024. The 2025 ITP identifies new and upgraded high-voltage lines needed throughout the region and is expected to produce benefits of between $12 and $18 for each dollar invested in transmission infrastructure, representing the highest benefit-to-cost ratio in SPP's planning history, according to a Nov. 4 statement.

"The 2025 ITP addresses grid reliability, enables economic growth, and supports strategic national interests," SPP President and CEO Lanny Nickell said in the statement. "The plan reflects the power of collaboration and will deliver significant measurable benefits while readying our grid for the future."

The portfolio's central component is the development of a regional 765-kV backbone as an efficient solution for long-distance power delivery, SPP said in its release. The 2025 ITP is also expected to support the interconnection of new generation resources considered critical to meeting rising demand, including several dispatchable resources that are going through SPP's generator interconnection study process.

SPP, which is responsible for coordinating electric reliability across 14 states in the Central US, anticipates that power consumption in its footprint will double over the next decade because of economic growth and increasing demand from homes and businesses. The grid operator's conservative assumptions project an expected increase in power demand of 35% over the next 10 years.

"We're building today for the demands of tomorrow," Casey Cathey, SPP's vice president of engineering, said in a statement. "This portfolio ensures we have the infrastructure in place to support new generation, meet accelerating demand, and enable economic growth while maintaining the reliability our region depends on."