PORTLAND, OR – Northwest Power Pool (NWPP) intends to hire Southwest Power Pool, Inc. (SPP) to provide program operator services in its effort to develop a resource adequacy program for interested utilities in the West.

In this role, SPP will work with the NWPP and its resource adequacy (RA) participants to help develop, implement, and operate the resource adequacy program.

“Southwest Power Pool has substantial experience developing and running a resource adequacy program across multiple states and the skill set to help us implement and operate the RA program,” said NWPP President Frank Afranji. “The program we are developing is open to participants across the West, and we believe SPP’s track record of successfully administering a multi-state RA program will help us operate the program in a manner that benefits all participants as well as the region.”

“We appreciate how important this resource adequacy program is to the West,” said Barbara Sugg, SPP president and CEO. “As its program operator, we look forward to the value we'll bring Northwest Power Pool members through strong customer involvement and experience improving reliability across multiple states with diverse generating resources.”

The scope of SPP’s services as a program operator include performing forward showing and operations program functions, modeling and system analytics, real-time operations, continual technical improvement, and IT systems work.

About the Northwest Power Pool Resource Adequacy Program

The effort to develop a resource adequacy program by the Northwest Power Pool and a set of 20 utility members has been underway since October 2019. This process was initiated as result of a number of studies that indicate capacity deficits are expected in the region in the near-term.

About Southwest Power Pool, Inc. 

Southwest Power Pool, Inc. is a regional transmission organization: a nonprofit corporation mandated by the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission to ensure reliable supplies of power, adequate transmission infrastructure and competitive wholesale electricity prices on behalf of its members. SPP manages the electric grid across 17 central and western U.S. states and provides energy services on a contract basis to customers in both the Eastern and Western Interconnections. The company’s headquarters are in Little Rock, Arkansas. Learn more at SPP.org.

For more information, visit www.nwpp.org/adequacy

Media Contacts

NWPP: Frank Afranji 503-701-1895, frank.afranji@nwpp.org

SPP: Derek Wingfield 501-614-3394, dwingfield@spp.org