Southwest Power Pool reached a major landmark June 4 when it filed documents that could make it the first U.S. entity to provide full regional transmission organization services in both the eastern and western interconnections.
The RTO presented the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission with tariff amendments specific to its western members. FERC approval would make it the nation’s first grid manager serving the eastern and western halves of the nation, starting in early 2026.
SPP President and CEO Barbara Sugg said years of collaboration among the SPP staff, existing RTO members and western entities led to the milestone. “I couldn’t be more thrilled,” she said in a statement. “The revised RTO tariff improves the reliability of the electric grid and provides economic benefits for entities in both the Eastern and Western Interconnections.”
Seven western entities are pursuing RTO membership or expanded participation with SPP.
They are Basin Electric Power Cooperative; Colorado Springs Utilities; Deseret Power Electric Cooperative; the Municipal Energy Agency of Nebraska; Platte River Power Authority; Tri-State Generation and Transmission Association; and the Western Area Power Administration Colorado River Storage Project, Rocky Mountain region and Upper Great Plains region.
Those utilities and entities are also the first western organizations to participate in SPP’s Integrated Marketplace in the Western Interconnection.
“As we pursue a new energy future, we’re excited the RTO effort has reached this milestone,” said Travas Deal, Colorado Springs Utilities’ CEO. “The RTO offers unprecedented access to regional transmission and generation resources that will help us reach our emission reduction goals, add more renewable energy, manage customer costs and ensure the reliability of our electric grid.”
SPP’s RTO expansion will give member companies access to a larger electricity generation fleet, greater geographic diversity and more efficiency. SPP’s energy markets offer optimized direct current ties between the eastern and western Interconnections, according to a news release.
Those DC connections will also help resilience, the RTO said. It estimated that the western entities will realize more than $200 million in annual benefits, adding to the $2.8 billion in benefits existing RTO members already enjoy.
SPP said its “inclusive and transparent governance structure” will help the RTO expand in the west “with minimal impact to current processes.” Representatives from the seven western entities will serve on the SPP Members Committee and the Markets and Operations Policy Committee. The Regional State Committee, comprising regulatory commissioners from states in the RTO footprint, will grow by four seats representing the four states included in western expansion: Arizona, Colorado, Utah and Wyoming.
“We enthusiastically look forward to Tri-State’s participation in the western expansion of the SPP RTO, which will reliably and cost-effectively advance our energy transition, while meeting our greenhouse gas reduction goals,” said Tri-State Generation and Transmission Association CEO Duane Highley, a former CEO of Arkansas Electric Cooperative Corp. and Arkansas Electric Cooperative Inc. “The full benefits of the RTO, including a day-ahead market, an ancillary services market, efficient regional transmission planning, common transmission tariff and participatory governance model help us to further reduce costs for our cooperative members across the West.”
The expansion of the SPP RTO is scheduled to go live April 1, 2026.
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