SPP has added its first international member in Saskatchewan Power Corporation (SaskPower), seven years after the RTO’s first international transactions with the Canadian utility.

The two organizations said SaskPower’s membership represents their continued efforts to increase reliability through interregional coordination. In August, they announced a 20-year interconnection agreement to expand transmission capacity between Saskatchewan and the U.S. The announcement requires construction of a new line, which will allow for 650 MW of cross-border flows beginning in 2027. (See “RTO, SaskPower Agree to Expand Interconnection’s Capacity,” SPP Briefs: Week of Aug. 8, 2022.)

“SPP is very pleased to welcome SaskPower into our organization The continued success of our organization and the integrity of the bulk power system both rely on strong interregional ties,” SPP CEO Barbara Sugg said in a press release.

SaskPower’s membership became effective Oct. 1. They are now SPP’s 115th member.

“Greater integration with the SPP will help to ensure reliable, clean energy is available to Saskatchewan to support our own generating facilities,” SaskPower CEO Rupen Pandya said in a press release.

SPP and SaskPower have operated as adjacent entities since October 2015, when SPP’s service territory expanded to the North Dakota-Saskatchewan border after the Integrated System’s utilities became members of SPP and placed their facilities under the RTO’s tariff. The organizations have a joint operating agreement that outlines how the organizations coordinate reliability and transmission functions.

The utility and SPP will expand the 150-MW tie line that connects them. SPP has been making international transactions with SaskPower since an emergency situation in late 2015, thanks to Canadian interconnections that came when the Integrated System joined the RTO. (See SPP, SaskPower Make First International Trade.)