Southwest Power Pool elects Mark Crisson to Board of Directors, approves 13 transmission upgrades
LITTLE ROCK, AR–(Marketwired – January 31, 2017) – At a meeting in Dallas on Jan. 31, the members of Southwest Power Pool (SPP), a regional power grid operator that ensures access to reliable and affordable sources of electricity, elected Mark Crisson to the company’s board of directors and approved construction of 13 transmission upgrades as part of their Integrated Transmission Planning (ITP) process.
Mark Crisson elected to board of directors
The appointment is effective immediately and will expand SPP’s board of directors to 10 members. The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission in August 2015 approved SPP’s request to revise its bylaws to expand its then-seven-member board of directors by up to three additional seats. Two of the three open positions were filled in January 2016 with the election of Bruce Scherr and Graham Edwards.
“On behalf of our entire membership, I am very pleased to welcome Mark to our board,” SPP President and CEO Nick Brown said. “He brings a distinct and rare set of skills and experiences to our group of directors, and we look forward to benefitting from his insights as we ramp up our engagement in national energy policy discussion.”
Mark Crisson has more than 40 years of experience in the electric utility industry, with 30 of those at the senior executive level. He served as president and CEO of the American Public Power Association (APPA) in Washington, D.C., from 2007-2014. Prior to that assignment, he spent nearly 30 years with Tacoma Public Utilities, serving as its director and CEO from 1993-2007. At Tacoma, he led the electric utility through the western energy crisis in 2001. He also spearheaded Click! Network, the nation’s largest municipally owned telecommunications system.
While at Tacoma, Crisson served 10 years on the APPA board of directors and served as chairman of the board in 2003. He received the Alex Radin Distinguished Service Award in 2005 for exceptional leadership in public power. Crisson also served on the U.S. Secretary of Energy’s Electric Advisory Board; served as chairman of the Large Public Power Council; and earned numerous awards for his work in the Tacoma community, including Business Leader of the Year in 2002.
While at APPA, Crisson worked extensively with both elected and appointed federal officials and other industry stakeholders to promote the interests of public power and the broader electric utility industry. Priority activities included climate change legislation, federal environmental regulations, analysis of ISO/RTO wholesale power markets, grid reliability and cybersecurity. Upon his departure from APPA, the group recognized his achievements in 2015 by creating and presenting him its first annual Mark Crisson Leadership and Managerial Excellence Award.
Crisson’s most recent endeavors include assisting Paducah Power System by serving as its interim general manager for five months in 2014-15 and working with the Navajo Tribal Utility Authority as its deputy general manager of Electrical and IT Systems for six months in 2015-16.
