Southwest Power Pool’s New Strategic Market Roadmap Seeks to Enhance Transparency

Southwest Power Pool Inc., the grid operator for 14 states in the central U.S., launched a new roadmap process to improve the way in which the grid operator and its stakeholders collaborate on proposed changes to its day-ahead and real-time electric markets, according to a Dec. 11 news release. The process adds more transparency, giving stakeholders input into the design and prioritization of market improvements earlier in the resource planning and decision-making processes, the grid operator said.

The annual roadmap process provides a two- to five-year outlook, facilitating coordination and collaboration between the system operator’s stakeholders and staff to identify, educate, rank, and approve the enhancement initiatives. As the process will occur earlier than existing market development process, it will provide a work plan that aligns the grid operator’s development efforts with the needs and business goals of market participants and members.

The Integrated Marketplace is the grid operator’s wholesale energy market that selects the most cost-effective generation to reliably meet customer demand. The market has produced the lowest wholesale electricity costs in the nation, saving market participants cumulatively more than $3 billion and enabling access to renewable energy, according to SPP.

SPP recently launched its western reliability coordination service for almost a dozen western entities, becoming the first regional transmission organization to provide the service in both the Eastern and Western Interconnections.

Stakeholder initiatives must be submitted by Jan. 31, 2020. The first roadmap will be published in July 2020, subject to approval by the Markets and Operations Policy Committee.