Created in 1941 to power a 24/7 aluminum plant key to America's World War II aircraft production, the Southwest Power Pool (SPP) manages the electric grid in all or part of eight states and coordinates transmission in a ninth. SPP's footprint comprises 370,000 square miles of territory, including 859 generating plants, 6,101 substations, and 48,930 miles of transmission.

SPP's relationships with our members – some of which stretch back decades – are very important to us. Members drive our major decisions and future plans; we work together to ensure the region enjoys a reliable electric supply and economic well being. SPP's collaborative and evolutionary approach resulted in the successful 2004 implementation of the real-time EIS (Energy Imbalance Service) Market. The EIS Market beat expectations in its first year, with a benefit to the footprint of $103 million – $17 million above initial estimates.

Integrated Marketplace
SPP began developing new energy markets in 2009 to bring additional regional benefit to our members. The Integrated Marketplace, which will launch in 2014, will include a Day-Ahead Market with Transmission Congestion Rights, a Reliability Unit Commitment process, a Real-Time Balancing Market to replace the current Energy Imbalance Service Market, and the incorporation of price-based Operating Reserve procurement. In coordination with the Integrated Marketplace, the current Balancing Authorities within the SPP footprint will combine to form a Consolidated Balancing Authority.

Market Monitoring
The Market Monitoring page contains a description of the Market Monitoring responsibilities, periodic reports, completed investigation reports, FAQs and Offer Cap calculation data. The page also includes instructions on submitting a request for inquiry.

Market Prices
Locational Imbalance Prices (LIPs) are calculations of prices for Energy Imbalance Service (EIS) at settlement locations using the State Estimator and a Security Constrained Economic Dispatch (SCED) concept. In other words, the LIP is the price to provide least-cost incremental unit of energy at a specific location.

Imbalance energy is priced depending on the location at which resources are deployed to meet the load so that Market Participants are aware of the price per MW of electricity at numerous busy intersections on the system.

Substitute Locational Imbalance Prices and LIP Contour Map are also available.

Meter Agent Report Cards
Links to the most recent Meter Agent Report Cards may be found in the in the Documents and Filings library under Market Reference Documents.

Market-Related Organizational Groups
Change Working Group
Market Working Group
Market and Operations Policy Committee
Settlements Data and Metering Standards Task Force

Oasis Node
Go to SPP's Oasis Node to request transmission service, obtain real-time transmission system information, and learn more about SPP's business practices and tariff..

OPS1 Secure Portal
The OPS1 Secure Portal is a site used for transfer of data and information between SPP's members and SPP staff.  Contained here are near real-time reliability and market reports, technical applications for submitting data to SPP, and other system information.

Outage Coordination
SPP's Outage Coordination page contains information about and links to SPP's transmission and generation outage scheduling system.

Peak Load
Non-coincidental peak load across the SPP footprint.

Power Contracts Bulletin Board
The Power Contracts Bulletin Board facilitates power contracting activity for a large pool of buyers and sellers of contracts for electric power. The application is sponsored by the ISO/RTO Council, of which SPP is a member.