SPP on Wednesday released a final proposal detailing the proposed governance structure, basic market design and other key features for the RTO’s day-ahead market offering in the Western Interconnection.
The RTO will now spend the next few months engaging with parties that have already expressed interest in committing to Markets+, a conceptual bundle of services that centralizes day-ahead and real-time unit commitment and dispatch. SPP says the market and its “hurdle-free transmission service” will help integrate the region’s rapidly growing fleet of renewable generation.
SPP has held several in-person meetings and webinars over the past year to gather input and reach agreement with potential stakeholders on the service offering. CEO Barbara Sugg said in a press release that collaborating with Western stakeholders on the Markets+ design has been a “tremendous effort.” (See Governance, Resource Adequacy Key to SPP’s Markets+.)
“Thanks to the dedication and engagement of these entities over the past year, I’m confident we can design and deliver a market that addresses challenges unique to the region and provides value to western customers,” she said.
SPP’s final Markets+ service offering | SPPThe service offering anticipates a two-phase process for continued development of Markets+. Potential participants and stakeholders will financially commit to design the market protocols, tariff and governing documents in the first phase. A second phase begins after FERC’s approval of the tariff; SPP will acquire the necessary software and hardware while participating entities fully commit to fund and are integrated into the system.
Parties interested in committing to financing further development of the market must sign a funding agreement by April 1 that will cover SPP staff’s involvement.
Load and/or generation entities that sign the agreement would get a vote on the Markets+ Participants Executive Committee (MPEC) in the first phase, and their representatives would be eligible for appointment to working groups and task forces. Those without load or generation would sign a participation agreement and make a one-time $5,000 payment or obtain a waiver in order to vote on tariff and protocol recommendations.
The MPEC is akin to SPP’s Markets and Operations Policy Committee in the Eastern Interconnection. It will provide a forum for market participants, stakeholders and non-voting stakeholders to discuss issues and to review system or process-improvement proposals recommended by SPP, the Markets+ State Committee and members and stakeholders.
The committee will report to the Markets+ Independent Panel (MIP), the highest level of authority for decisions related to the market, but with the SPP Board of Directors providing independent oversight. SPP said the board will “give significant recognition and deference to the [MIP’s] decision-making role.”
Because the RTO does not expect the MIP to be established during phase one, a three-person subcommittee of the SPP board will perform the decision-making functions until the MIP can be formed.
