The G&T Perspective: Projecting Power Needs for 20 Years

Biloxi, Miss.—“We used to do a power requirements study every other year,” recalled Jim Compton, general manager of South Mississippi Electric Power Association.

Member co-ops would give the Hattiesburg, Miss.-based G&T data on such matters as projected new loads. SMEPA would analyze the data to develop a long-range power requirements study, which is used for generation planning.

That was then; this is now.

“Things are so different with the load growth that we have started doing that power requirements study every year, to be sure that we are accurately tracking growth and that we don’t overbuild,” Compton told Electric Co-op Today during the Regions 2 & 3 meeting here.

“We’re planning 15, 20 years out to be sure there’s adequate generation, considering the length of time it takes to permit and build plants. So it’s important for us to be sure that we have the best data,” he added.

The many new subdivisions and condominium complexes sprouting up as hurricane-wary residents move farther inland add to the complexities of planning to meet projected demand at SMEPA.

“It’s been a real challenge to keep up with their growth just from a power delivery point of view,” Compton said. “It’s not just power. We have to have the right type of power, be it baseload, intermediate or peaking.”

The G&T’s executives spend a lot of time studying some very big variables, such as how far inland people will move and how long they will stay. Another question is whether all of the developments still on the drawing board will make it to groundbreaking.

“There have been subdivisions planned but never built,” Compton said.

“So we have to be a skeptic to a certain degree, to translate what they think is going to happen into what is really happening, and what the future requirements will be for us.

“Can it justify that enormous investment in substations, transmission lines and generation?”

About 43 percent of SMEPA’s generation is coal-based, and Compton said it “seems inescapable” that a new coal plant will have to be built.

“If and when we build it,” he said, “it will be the cleanest coal plant in Mississippi, and will have the least carbon impact of any coal plant in Mississippi.”

Compton said that for his G&T, it all comes down to one thing: “Reliability is our first obligation to our members.”

Source: Michael W. Kahn, Electric Co-op Today

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