Potential participants in SPP’s Markets+ day-ahead offering endorsed another batch of tariff revisions in preparation for a March filing at FERC.
During a Markets+ Participants Executive Committee meeting Feb. 20, stakeholders approved dozens of pages of revisions related to market monitoring, state greenhouse gas emission programs and transmission usage. Assuming the entire tariff package is approved in March by the Markets+ independent panel of SPP directors and the RTO’s board, it will be submitted to FERC.
MPEC Vice Chair Brian Cole, with Arizona Public Service, praised the “amazing effort” by all involved in the tariff’s development, which began in August 2022. “To get to where we are is amazing. I know we’ve got a long way to go, but to get to a tariff filing is really great,” he said.
The various revisions were approved unanimously against some abstentions. However, a motion to endorse the updated tariff as approved by MPEC and move it to the governing process’ next step for filing at FERC drew four no votes from Western Resources Advocates, the Natural Resources Defense Council, the Sierra Club and the NW Energy Coalition.
“It’s not us saying we do not believe in Markets+,” said Kylah McNabb, speaking for the NRDC. “It’s a product that should go forward. It just needs more work before filing at FERC.”
“Procedurally, we need this vote to move it forward to [the Interim Markets+ Independent Panel],” SPP’s Carrie Simpson, director of western services development, said. “We’ve got the pieces. This is the full package. We need endorsement to get to IMIP.”
“The tariff is notably incomplete. More time is needed,” agreed WRA’s Vijay Satyal, deputy director of regional markets.
McNabb pointed to MPEC’s discussion over the remaining tariff revisions to the greenhouse gas (GHG) market’s design. PowerEx’s Mark Holman suggested language assigning resources to load was “watered down” and asked to strengthen an action item directing the Markets+ Development Working Group (MDWG) and SPP staff to evaluate tools for monitoring and tracking GHG programs.
“We’d like to strengthen it if other participants are supportive because we feel there needs to be a strong push coming out of this phase to develop the ability to attribute resources to load and have the comprehensive reporting that I think ourselves and others have envisioned,” Holman said.
MPEC approved the action item and revisions related to the assignment of resources to load and GHG market design settlements.
SPP staff is surveying Markets+ participants on WRA’s suggestion for an external market monitoring consultant over a three-year period before and after the market’s deployment and to gauge their appetite for a hybrid market monitoring option that could cost an additional $2.5 million. The advocacy group pointed to tariff language that would expand the monitoring structure to include an external adviser to SPP’s Market Monitoring Unit, given the market’s new design approach.
WRA has suggested the developmental phase of the market should include guidance on “areas of focus” by the external consultant. Satyal used a seams and joint operating agreement with CAISO’s Extended Day-Ahead Market (EDAM) as a relevant example.
“The WRA simply feels this is an insurance policy,” he said.
The IMIP meets virtually March 1. It will take up the tariff package and hear any appeals. Assuming IMIP’s approval, the tariff will be considered by the board during a March 25 conference call.
SPP is hoping for FERC approval in October or November and work to begin on Markets+’s implementation early in 2025. That would put the RTO a year behind CAISO’s EDAM, the other competing market offering in the West. The commission approved the EDAM filing in December. (See CAISO Wins (Nearly) Sweeping FERC Approval for EDAM.)
Under SPP’s current timeline, shortened by three months, Markets+ would go live before summer 2027.
