SPP Markets+
Tacoma Power has signed an agreement to join SPP’s Markets+, making the Washington utility the second Pacific Northwest entity to commit to participating in the market in the past month.
The new paper from Powerex is likely to reignite the debate between supporters of CAISO’s Extended Day-Ahead Market and SPP’s Markets+ just as the competition between the two markets approach critical junctures.
BPA CEO John Hairston said the agency is committed to President Donald Trump’s goal to “unleash American energy dominance,” while also revealing that about 200 staff have accepted the president’s deferred resignation offer.
A workshop on the West-Wide Governance Pathways Initiative has sparked praise for the proposal as well as concerns, including uneasiness over plans to share staffing between CAISO and a new regional organization that would govern Western electricity markets.
Financial backers of Phase 2 of SPP’s Markets+ have until Feb. 14 to submit executed funding agreements, the RTO said.
BPA would have to strike several types of agreements, many of which are complex and could take years to implement, to tackle seams that could arise if BPA joins a day-ahead market, agency staff said during a workshop.
BPA could face high implementation fees and operating costs under both SPP’s Markets+ and CAISO’s EDAM, but exact amounts are in flux.
California ratepayers would save millions more in a CAISO Extended Day-Ahead Market encompassing nearly all the West than in one that includes only those utilities likely to join the market, according to a new Brattle Group study.
El Paso Electric says it will join SPP’s regional day-ahead Markets+ service offering in a “strategic move … tailored” to meet expected customer load growth and evolving needs.
Arizona Corporation Commissioner Kevin Thompson said he thinks his state’s four major utilities may have erred in committing to joining SPP’s Markets+ instead of CAISO’s Extended Day-Ahead Market.
Want more? Advanced Search










