PSO’s new president looks forward to opportunities
Peggy Simmons is feeling right at home in her new role as Public Service Co. of Oklahoma’s president.
Simmons, who previously was the managing director of transmission asset strategy for PSO’s parent, American Electric Power, stepped into the job in early September after it had been held the previous 14 years by Stuart Solomon.
To her, Oklahoma feels a lot like small-town Ohio, which is where she grew up. “Everyone knows everyone,” she said, when discussing meeting various community leaders. Oklahomans, she said, are some of the most welcoming people she has ever met.
“I grew up in a very small town where everyone knew everyone, and I think there is a lot of positivism in that,” she said. “It shows opportunity, and I see a lot of collaboration in the state.”
Simmons said she also has been busy since her arrival getting more familiar with the company, its leadership team and the 1,600 employees who work for and support the utility.
“I have spent a lot of time going out and meeting our employees, in their environment,” she said. “I want them to know I am approachable and that I am a team member.”
Beyond that, Simmons said
she is focused on an immediate priority for the utility, which is a pending $88 million rate increase under consideration by the Oklahoma Corporation Commission.
The utility, which serves about 550,000 customers in eastern and in southwestern Oklahoma, is asking the commission to allow it to move it from a traditional regulatory format to one that’s performance based.
Under performancebased rate making, the amount a utility can charge for its product can be affected by performance metrics that are reviewed annually, including customer satisfaction rates and outage percentages.
That form of regulation has been around for awhile, but only has been used in Oklahoma to regulate natural gas utilities.
If approved by the commission, PSO’s proposed increase would could provide the utility with about $264 million in extra revenue over a three-year-period, assuming it met its performance requirements. A spokesman has said that money would offset costs of $240 million PSO has invested in system repairs and improvements since its last rate case in 2017.
It also would provide the utility with money it needs to continue to upgrade its power distribution system to boost its ability to operate as a smart grid. Utility officials have said the increase would provide the utility with an annual profit of 10.3 percent and would cost an average residential customer $7 a month.
Simmons said the performance-based metrics included in the proposal encompass needed distribution system upgrades to reduce outages by adding automated switching equipment. The increased revenue also would boost PSO’s efforts to work with local and state officials to promote economic development.
“The industry is changing,” Simmons said. “The wants and needs of our customers are changing, there’s new technology out there and we need to do more investing.
“So, how do we address that, when we have little to no load growth? We need a mechanism that will enable us to meet our needs, while focusing on serving our customers.”
Before coming to PSO, Simmons worked on behalf of American Electric Power to help support a plan PSO and another of its subsidiaries, Southwestern Electric Power, had put forward that proposed buying a massive Panhandle wind farm from developers.
The $4.5 billion Wind Catcher Energy Connection plan also had proposed the construction of a new transmission line that would have carried energy from the farm into their grids. The plan, however, was abandoned after Southwestern failed to get an approval it needed from Texas utility regulators.
This week, Simmons agreed new transmission needs deserve attention from state regulators, regional transmission organization officials and power consumers, both residential and commercial.
“Most of PSO’s distribution and transmission system was built in the 1970s, and before,” Simmons said. “We need a more resilient grid because of cybersecurity threats, and that is something, I think, that customers can understand.”
The utility also wants to upgrade its system to better respond to outages caused by Oklahoma’s weather, she said.
“We need to make investments to protect our system so we can keep our service reliable.”
Simmons has worked for American Electric Power since 1999. She earned an economics degree from Ohio State University, a master’s in public policy and administration from Central Michigan University, and graduated from the Executive Program at the Darden School of Business at the University of Virginia. She also is a member of the G100 Next Generation Leadership program.
As president and chief operating officer for PSO, she will be responsible for its customer service, distribution operations, safety, communications, external affairs and regulatory functions.