SPP files tariff revisions for Integrated Marketplace
LITTLE ROCK, Ark. – Southwest Power Pool (SPP) today completed a major milestone in implementing its Integrated Marketplace when it filed revisions to its Open Access Transmission Tariff (OATT) with the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC). The filing can be accessed here.
The Tariff revisions will provide the regulatory framework for the Integrated Marketplace’s operations. They were approved by the SPP Board of Directors on January 31.
“Today’s filing is the result of an extremely productive and collaborative effort between SPP and our stakeholders,” said SPP President and CEO Nick Brown. “With this filing, we have locked down the Integrated Marketplace’s design. We can now focus our collective energies on bringing the Marketplace online, strengthening the region’s grid reliability, and increasing cost savings and efficiencies.”
The Integrated Marketplace is scheduled to go live in March 2014, yielding estimated annual net benefits of $100 million to the region. The Marketplace will determine which generating units should run the next day for maximum cost-effectiveness, provide participants with greater access to reserve electricity, improve regional balancing of supply and demand, and facilitate the integration of renewable
resources.
Today’s filing culminated more than four years of work by SPP and its stakeholders to determine the appropriate design, develop and scrutinize the necessary Marketplace Protocols, and then develop, review , and ultimately file the Tariff revisions. The FERC’s review of the filing is expected to take several months, with SPP requesting an order from FERC by July 1, 2012.
The revision process began in July 2010 with initial changes to the SPP Tariff that were refined through the collaborative SPP-stakeholder process, and ultimately led to the language included in today’s filing.
About Southwest Power Pool, Inc.
Founded in 1941, Southwest Power Pool, Inc. is a group of 65 members in Arkansas, Kansas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Missouri, Nebraska, New Mexico, Oklahoma, and Texas that serve more than 15 million customers. Membership is comprised of investor-owned utilities, municipal systems, generation and transmission cooperatives, state authorities, wholesale generators, power marketers, and independent transmission companies. SPP's footprint includes 48,930 miles of transmission lines and 370,000 square miles of service territory. SPP was a founding member of the North American Electric Reliability Corporation in 1968, and was designated by the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission as a Regional Transmission Organization (RTO) in 2004 and a Regional Entity (RE) in 2007. As an RTO, SPP ensures reliable supplies of power, adequate transmission infrastructure, and competitive wholesale prices of electricity. The SPP RE oversees compliance enforcement and reliability standards development. Learn more about SPP by visiting our Newsroom.