Press Releases
Southwest Power Pool board promotes three to senior vice president roles
Southwest Power Pool’s (SPP) executives overseeing the electric grid operator’s information technology (IT), engineering and operations functions were promoted from vice president to senior vice president roles July 31. Barbara Sugg is now the organization’s senior vice president of IT and chief security officer, Bruce Rew is now senior vice president of operations, and Lanny Nickell is now senior vice president of engineering.
Read MoreSouthwest Power Pool President and CEO Nick Brown to retire after more than three decades of leadership
At Southwest Power Pool’s Board of Directors and Members Committee meeting on July 29, President and CEO Nick Brown announced his retirement to be effective in April 2020. The board has engaged Russell Reynolds to perform a comprehensive search for his replacement.
Read MoreSouthwest Power Pool board approves policy recommendations to enhance reliability, planning and market functions
At Southwest Power Pool’s (SPP) Board of Directors and Members Committee meeting on July 29, the organization’s Holistic Integrated Tariff Team (HITT) presented 21 recommendations meant to:
• Ensure reliability for a changing generation mix and new technologies.
• Align transmission planning and cost allocation with SPP’s market and consolidated balancing authority.
• Enhance the Integrated Marketplace to reliably deliver low-cost energy to customers.
SPP proposes Western Energy Imbalance Service Market to bring cost savings and grid modernization to the west
Southwest Power Pool (SPP) has announced to western utilities its proposal for the Western Energy Imbalance Service market (WEIS) it intends to launch in December 2020. The wholesale electricity market will balance generation and load regionally and in real time. SPP’s previous energy imbalance market went live in 2007 and provided participants with $103 million in benefits in its first year of operation.
Read MoreSouthwest Power Pool leaders talk western expansion, holistic change and market performance at quarterly meetings
LITTLE ROCK, AR — Southwest Power Pool’s (SPP) Regional State Committee of state regulators and Board of Directors and Members Committee convened in Tulsa on April 29-30. President and CEO Nick Brown reported SPP’s preparations to provide reliability coordination services in the Western Interconnection are proceeding as planned toward a December 2019 launch date. That effort also has led to the opportunity to provide additional services in the west on a contract basis. Brown said SPP will take a strong leadership role in providing a model for western markets.
Read MoreSPP invites utilities to help build an electricity market to serve the west
Southwest Power Pool (SPP) wants to bring its time-tested business model, proven benefits and enhanced reliability to the west through an energy imbalance market that would facilitate more efficient deployment of generation and use of the region’s transmission system. It’s calling on interested utilities and other customers to join in the design and implementation of a market that will meet the electricity needs of the Western Interconnection.
Read MoreAs it turns five, Southwest Power Pool’s Integrated Marketplace is saving billions and enabling big changes in energy dispatch
On March 1, 2019, Southwest Power Pool marks the five-year anniversary of the launch of its wholesale electricity market, the Integrated Marketplace. Working in tandem with SPP’s other services, the Integrated Marketplace has produced the lowest wholesale electricity costs in the nation, saved SPP’s market participants cumulatively more than $2.7 billion and enabled access to renewables at a degree previously unimaginable, among providing other benefits to SPP’s stakeholders and the region as a whole.
Read MoreSouthwest Power Pool board outlines 2019 goals, approves new rate schedules and endorses 2018 transmission planning report
At the Jan. 29 Southwest Power Pool (SPP) Board of Directors and Members Committee meeting in New Orleans, stakeholders got a preview of the organization’s primary goals for the upcoming year, elected several new representatives, approved the preliminary design of mechanisms to modernize SPP’s cost-recovery processes and endorsed a list of proposed transmission upgrades to be constructed over the next five years.
Read MoreSouthwest Power Pool elects Susan Certoma and Darcy Ortiz to board of directors
On Oct. 30, Southwest Power Pool (SPP), a regional power grid operator that ensures access to reliable and affordable electricity, held its quarterly board meeting and annual meeting of members in Little Rock, Arkansas. SPP’s members elected Darcy Ortiz of Phoenix, Arizona, and Susan Certoma of New York City to the company’s board of directors. They will replace former board chairman Jim Eckelberger and former vice chairman Harry Skilton, who will transition to emeritus roles and continue to advise the board. The appointments are effective Jan. 1, 2019.
Read MoreSouthwest Power Pool, Little Rock School District partner to enhance STEM education for local students
LITTLE ROCK, ARK. - Southwest Power Pool (SPP), a Little Rock-based grid operator in the electric utility industry, wants to ensure students in its community have every opportunity to pursue rewarding careers in technical fields without leaving their home state. SPP has joined with the Little Rock School District (LRSD) to bolster science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) education beginning with elementary school students districtwide.
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