Did You Know

FERC Confirms Southwest Power Pool’s RTO Status

The effort to extend regional transmission organization (RTO) benefits to the nation’s electricity customers took another step forward recently when the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) confirmed the Southwest Power Pool’s (SPP) final RTO status and issued several orders that allowed SPP to move forward with its RTO market implementation.

“Development of an RTO in the eight-state SPP area will benefit more than 4 million additional electricity customers, bringing more competitive wholesale electric markets and increased reliability,” said FERC Chairman Pat Wood III.

FERC conditionally approved SPP’s proposed RTO in February 2004, and now has concluded that SPP, for the most part, has made revisions that addressed specific concerns outlined in the February order. SPP revised its Corporate Governance Committee, identified the transmission facilities under its operational control and took steps to resolve issues concerning Grandfathered Agreements, among other changes.

In a second order, FERC accepted SPP’s Joint Operating Agreement between itself and the Midwest Independent Transmission System Operator on an interim basis. Chairman Wood said the SPP’s actions laid the groundwork for cooperation with the two neighboring RTOs.

“The SPP RTO will provide tremendous benefits to the region for enhanced planning and continued reliability of service. We are very pleased that this order finalizes our federal regulatory status, and look forward to beginning the work on many new initiatives to enhance transmission service in our region,” said Nick Brown, SPP president and CEO.

For more information, a copy of the order can be found on the SPP Web site at www.spp.org, or contact EPSA’s Jack Cashin at jcashin@epsa.org.