[PORTLAND, Ore.] – The Northwest Power Pool Corporation (NWPP), the nonprofit that helps coordinate electric grid operations for the Northwestern United States and Western Canada, announced today the selection of Gregg Carrington as its new Chief Operating Officer (COO). As COO, Gregg will support regional program development activities, including the Northwest Power Pool’s development of a regional Resource Adequacy program, as well as day-to-day functions of the NWPP, including system operations and the NWPP’s implementation of contingency reserve and western frequency reserve sharing programs.

The NWPP, a non-profit mutual benefit corporation, supports the volunteer membership of the Northwest Power Pool, a group that includes major utilities, generators, and energy managers who together work for increased grid efficiency and reliability.

Gregg Carrington has had a tremendous career in the power industry, most recently as Managing Director of Energy Resources at Chelan PUD, where he has worked for the last 23 years. Highlights from his career include directing energy planning and trading, energy conservation, regulatory and government affairs, environmental resources, engineering, and licensing and compliance.

"Gregg brings a wealth of regional and executive experience to the NWPP. He has a long history in the Northwest and his technical expertise combined with the existing expertise of the NWPP staff will ensure the NWPP continues to deliver valued services to its customers," said Bill Drummond, Chairman of the NWPP’s Board of Directors.

“I am honored to be selected and look forward to working with Frank Afranji, the NWPP’s President, as well as the NWPP’s staff and participants. The Northwest Power Pool’s future is exceptionally bright, and I am excited about working with member companies to enhance the services provided by the NWPP,” said Gregg Carrington.

The NWPP is a nonprofit mutual-benefit corporation based in Portland, Oregon. Having evolved from its informal origins of three engineers on loan from member utilities in 1941 to a fully staffed independent organization, the NWPP strives to help its customer organizations achieve maximum benefits of coordinated operations. The Northwest Power Pool Agreement provides for a voluntary association of major generating utilities serving the Northwestern United States, British Columbia, and Alberta. Smaller, principally non-generating utilities in the region participate indirectly through the member system with which they are interconnected.  The staffing and governance functions supporting the committees of the Northwest Power Pool Agreement were folded into the NWPP, a nonprofit corporation, in 1999.

During the course of its evolution, the NWPP has refined its core values to be customer driven, relationship-based, independent, and operating with great integrity. From this foundation, the NWPP provides professional and management services to its participating organizations under its General Services Agreements and professional service contracts with individual Northwest Power Pool participants.

The Northwest Power Pool provides substantial economic benefits to the region, among many other services, by reducing the contingency reserve requirements of its members by approximately 5,000 MW at an estimated savings of a $1 billion a year. Northwest Power Pool membership activities are largely determined by major committees – the Operating Committee, the Coordinating Group for the Pacific Northwest Coordination Agreement, the Reserve Sharing Group Committee, and the Transmission Planning Committee.