SPP’s Western real-time energy market has attracted another participant in Colorado Springs Utilities, which is also interested in full RTO membership.
The grid operator announced Wednesday that CSU will join eight other entities already participating in the Western Energy Imbalance Service (WEIS) market in April 2022. The market went live in February and balances regional supply and demand in real-time. (See WEIS Market ‘First Step’ to Full RTO Membership.)
CSU said the market will save its customers money and help it meet its carbon reduction targets. The utility’s board of directors last year approved a new sustainable energy plan to reduce carbon emissions by at least 80% by 2030 and 90% by 2050 through renewable energy additions and incorporating storage resources.
“Our current portfolio of solar complements SPP well,” CSU CEO Aram Benyamin said in a news release, noting the WEIS market will help the utility better integrate new solar projects.
CSU will work with current WEIS market participant Western Area Power Administration as its balancing authority. SPP requires a participant to have a BA, responsible for operating a transmission control area, before it enters the market. The grid operator administers the market on a contract basis to nonmembers.
Along with all other WEIS participants, the Colorado utility will also evaluate RTO membership in a process expected to finish early next year. SPP said a recent Brattle Group study estimated that such a move would produce $49 million in benefits for current and new WEIS members.
“We’re confident they and their customers will soon see the benefits of working together with SPP,” SPP CEO Barbara Sugg said.
CSU serves 239,000 electricity customers and 213,000 natural gas customers in a footprint that straddles I-25 south of Denver. It also provides water and wastewater services.
