August 10, 2020

Northwest Power Pool hires Southwest Power Pool to aid in resource adequacy program development

PORTLAND, OR – Northwest Power Pool (NWPP) has hired Southwest Power Pool, Inc. (SPP) to act as the Program Developer in its effort to develop a resource adequacy program for its member utilities.

In this role, SPP will work with the NWPP and its participating member utilities to expand and refine the preliminary program design into a comprehensive resource adequacy program.

“Southwest Power Pool has direct experience developing and running a resource adequacy program across multiple states and the skill set to help us determine key program design features to achieve the reliability objectives of the RA program,” said NWPP President Frank Afranji. “The program we are developing will be available to participants with different needs and interests across a wide swath of the West and we believe SPP’s multi-state RA program experience will help us develop a program that provides benefits for all participants as well as the region.”

“We are excited to assist the Northwest Power Pool in this important effort to develop a resource adequacy program in the West,” said Barbara Sugg, president and CEO of Southwest Power Pool. “SPP has administered a regional resource adequacy program in various forms and phases over the past five decades. Our expertise in program design, development and administration as well as our experience working with stakeholders and regulators will provide value to the NWPP RA program development effort.”

The scope of SPP’s work is expected to last through 2020 and will span the design phase of NWPP’s resource adequacy program development. Once the resource adequacy program is fully designed and the program development phase has ended, NWPP members will competitively solicit a program administrator to implement and run the program on an ongoing basis. “The program administrator is a separate role from the program developer role with different requirements and we look forward to considering all candidates for this role in the future,” said Afranji.

About the Northwest Power Pool Resource Adequacy Program

The effort to develop a resource adequacy program by the Northwest Power Pool and a set of 18 utility members has been underway since October 2019. This process is a result of a number of studies that indicate capacity deficits are expected in the region in the near-term.

About Southwest Power Pool, Inc. 

Southwest Power Pool, Inc. is a regional transmission organization: a nonprofit corporation mandated by the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission to ensure reliable supplies of power, adequate transmission infrastructure and competitive wholesale electricity prices on behalf of its members. SPP manages the electric grid across 17 central and western U.S. states and provides energy services on a contract basis to customers in both the Eastern and Western Interconnections. The company’s headquarters are in Little Rock, Arkansas. Learn more at SPP.org.

For more information, visit www.nwpp.org/adequacy

Dustin Smith, 501-482-2085, dbsmith@spp.org