January 9, 2012

SPP to add 50 jobs to Little Rock in 2012

LITTLE ROCK, Ark. - Southwest Power Pool, Inc. (SPP), a non-profit organization that provides services to 65 members in the electricity utility industry in nine states, announced today it will add 50 new positions in 2012, at an average salary of $83,500.

The new employees will join the more than 500 who work for SPP today in three separate facilities in Little Rock and Maumelle. Construction will be completed this spring on a new $62-million corporate office center in west Little Rock that will bring all employees together in one location.

“We are preparing to implement a new energy market that will improve electric reliability and bring our members net benefits of about $100 million per year,” said Senior Vice President for Regulatory Policy and General Counsel Paul Suskie. “This initiative requires adding more staff and increasing the size of our facilities.”

The positions to be hired cover a variety of career fields including information technology, legal, financial, engineering, training and analysis. Current openings can always be found on the Careers page at SPP.org.

SPP provides a 10:1 benefit/cost ratio for its members, which reflects on the expertise of its staff and their focus on serving the members and facilitating key work processes, Suskie said.

“The new Integrated Marketplace, which goes live in March 2014, will provide additional benefit by coordinating next-day generation across the region to maximize cost-effectiveness,” he said. “We will provide participants with greater access to reserve energy, improve regional balancing of electricity supply and demand, and facilitate the integration of renewable resources.”

About Southwest Power Pool, Inc.

Founded in 1941, Southwest Power Pool, Inc. is a group of 65 members in Arkansas, Kansas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Missouri, Nebraska, New Mexico, Oklahoma, and Texas that serve more than 15 million customers. Membership is comprised of investor-owned utilities, municipal systems, generation and transmission cooperatives, state authorities, wholesale generators, power marketers, and independent transmission companies. SPP's footprint includes 48,930 miles of transmission lines and 370,000 square miles of service territory. SPP was a founding member of the North American Electric Reliability Corporation in 1968, and was designated by the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission as a Regional Transmission Organization (RTO) in 2004 and a Regional Entity (RE) in 2007. As an RTO, SPP ensures reliable supplies of power, adequate transmission infrastructure, and competitive wholesale prices of electricity. The SPP RE oversees compliance enforcement and reliability standards development. Read more fast facts or watch a video about SPP.