Fast Facts

An Overview of the SPP System

SPP has members in 15 states: Arkansas, Colorado, Iowa, Kansas, Louisiana, Minnesota, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, New Mexico, North Dakota, Oklahoma, South Dakota, Texas and Wyoming. We have customers in all or part of 23 states and provinces through our western energy services.

• Service territory: ~552,885 square miles (2022)
  
• Substations: 5,180 (2022)
• Generation plants: 949 (2021, in Integrated Marketplace / SPP Balancing Authority)
• Miles of transmission: 72,004 (2023)
• Coincident peak load: 53,243 MW (7/19/22)
• Winter peak load: 47,157 MW (12/22/22)
• Generating capacity: 105,464 MW (based on nameplate capacity as of 1/27/22)
  • 35.7% natural gas
  • 29.6% wind
  • 24.3% coal
  • 6.3% hydro
  • 2.0% nuclear
  • 1.6% fuel oil
  • 0.3% solar
  • 0.2% other
• Energy production by fuel type (1/19/23):
  287,289 GWh 
  • 33.3% coal
  • 37.5% wind
  • 20.9% natural gas
  • 5.1% nuclear
  • 2.9% hydro
  • 0.2% solar
  • 0.1% other

Primary Services Provided to Members and Customers

SPP provides many services to its members and customers. These services include:

• Reliability Coordination:  SPP monitors power flow throughout our footprint and coordinates regional response in emergency situations or blackouts.
• Tariff Administration:  SPP provides "one-stop shopping" for use of the region's transmission lines and independently administers an Open Access Transmission Tariff with consistent rates and terms. SPP processed an average of 6,491 member transmission service requests per month in 2020. 2020 transmission service transactions totaled $4.5 billion.
• Regional Scheduling:  SPP ensures the amount of power sent is matched with power received.
• Transmission Expansion:  SPP's planning processes seek to identify system limitations, develop transmission upgrade plans, and track project progress to ensure timely completion of system reinforcements.
• Market Operations:  The Integrated Marketplace launched in 2014, replacing the Energy Imbalance Service (EIS) market. It includes a day-ahead market with transmission congestion rights, a reliability unit commitment process, a real-time balancing market replacing the EIS market, and the incorporation of price-based operating reserve procurement. SPP's own analysis showed its markets provide participants with net savings of $744.3 million annually.
  
• Training:  SPP offers continuing education for operations personnel at SPP and throughout the region. SPP's 2020 training program delivered over 26,336 training hours to 251 organizations, representing reliability, train-the-trainer, Integrated Marketplace and transmission settlement courses.