SPP launches new Strategic Market Roadmap development process
LITTLE ROCK, ARK. — Southwest Power Pool’s (SPP) new Strategic Market Roadmap development process launches Dec. 11 and will enhance the process by which SPP and its stakeholders collaborate on proposed changes to its day-ahead and real-time electricity markets, the Integrated Marketplace. Specifically, it increases transparency and gives stakeholders input into the design and prioritization of market enhancements earlier in SPP’s resource-planning and decision-making processes.
The annual roadmap process looks out two to five years and facilitates the identification, education, ranking and approval of SPP’s enhancement initiatives through coordination and collaboration between SPP’s stakeholders and staff. The process will occur upstream of existing processes related to market development and will serve as a work plan that ensures SPP’s development efforts align with the needs and business goals of its members and market participants. Stakeholders will have peace of mind they’ve had a meaningful say in the future direction of SPP’s markets, and SPP can execute its plans with confidence that it’s acting in the best interests of its members and market participants.
“Our roadmap is a living document that will change as our market needs change,” said Erin Cathey, a senior market design analyst involved in the process’s development. “We want our markets to evolve and operate as reliably and cost effectively as possible, and we want to be sure we’re constantly addressing our organization’s greatest needs, balancing the diverse interests of our stakeholders, and involving them in decisions about our path forward.”
Stakeholders can submit initiatives between Dec. 11, 2019, and Jan. 31, 2020. Following the close of the submission window, SPP and stakeholders will provide education about the initiatives and rank them. Based on submissions received during this window, SPP will publish its first roadmap in July 2020 pending approval by the Markets and Operations Policy Committee. Visit SPP.org’s Strategic Market Roadmap page for submission forms and more information.
“The roadmap will increase stakeholder ownership and prioritization of SPP initiatives by creating a more formal process for collaboration,” said Richard Ross, chair of the Market Working Group. “Increasing transparency into our market initiatives is one of our goals. We can then use this roadmap process to take similar steps in other stakeholder and operational areas.”
The Integrated Marketplace is SPP’s wholesale energy market that selects the most cost-effective generation to reliably meet customer demand. Our market has produced the lowest wholesale electricity costs in the nation, saved SPP’s market participants cumulatively more than $3 billion and enabled access to renewable energy.
About SPP: 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.
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