Oklahoma task force to look at transmission obstacles

A nine-member task force, created by the Oklahoma Legislature earlier this year, will begin meeting in mid-September to look at transmission obstacles facing the state. California's power crisis prompted Oklahoma lawmakers to delay retail electric competition in the Sooner State from mid-2002 until 2004 or later.
Lawmakers also formed the Electric Restructuring Advisory Committee to review work of an earlier legislative task force and to monitor restructuring activity in other states. The first topic for committee debate will be transmission. A report on transmission is due by the end of the year and a final task force report is due Dec. 31, 2002.

The committee co-chairman, Oklahoma State Sen. Kevin Easley, D-Broken Arrow, chairman of the Senate energy committee, wants to study a possible state buyout of the high-voltage transmission grid. Earlier this year, Easley, a proponent of electric restructuring, told Dow Jones that lawmakers want to make sure that electricity from the estimated 18 new generating units under development in the state is able to flow to other states.
Little surplus transfer capacity to serve a booming wholesale power market is available in the Southwest Power Pool, a regional grid that extends from Kansas to Mississippi that includes Oklahoma. Easley said some estimates call for investment of between $ 500 mm and $ 1 bn to upgrade the existing grid to accommodate the new power to be produced the state.

The committee's first public meeting was on Sept. 19 in Tulsa. Other meetings were tentatively set for the third Wednesday of each month at locations around the state. In addition to transmission projects, the public will be able to comment on other restructuring issues at each meeting, officials said. Officials with both of the state's investor-owned utilities, Public Service of Oklahoma, a unit of American Electric Power (AEP), and OG&E Electric Services, a unit of OGE Energy (OGE), said they welcome the transmission study.
Other members of the advisory committee are State Rep., Larry Rice, chairman of the Oklahoma House energy committee; Mike Hunter, representing the governor's office; Drew Edmondson, Oklahoma attorney general; Denise Bode, chairman of the Oklahoma Corporation Commission; Sandy Garrett, state superintendent of public instruction; Jerry Johnson, vice chairman of the Oklahoma Tax Commission; and additional legislators, Jerry Smith and John Wright.