Tacoma Power has signed an agreement to join SPP’s Markets+, making the Washington utility the second Pacific Northwest entity to commit to participating in the market in the past month.
The Feb. 13 announcement comes as little surprise, given that Tacoma has been among the Western entities contributing to the series of “issue alerts” published since last summer favorably comparing Markets+ with CAISO’s Extended Day-Ahead Market. (See Pathways Step 2 Not Good Enough, Markets+ Backers Say.)
The municipal utility also has been counted among the majority of the Bonneville Power Administration’s base of publicly owned utility “preference” customers urging the federal power marketing administration to sign on to the SPP effort.
“A diverse group of electric utilities came together with a common goal: to build an energy market that will benefit our customers by optimizing how utilities in the West buy and sell electricity,” Chris Robinson, Tacoma Power’s general manager, said in a statement. “We’ve accomplished this with a durable and independent governance structure that will provide the right value for hydropower and will ensure the benefits continue flowing to our customers far into the future.”
Tacoma’s Public Utility Board approved the utility’s commitment to Markets+ last November, according to the statement.
“Tacoma Power will continue to participate in ongoing market development over the next two years. This will create the systems that will enable Markets+ to operate while Tacoma and other utilities complete the internal onboarding steps necessary to integrate market operations,” the utility said.
According to a spreadsheet posted to SPP’s website last October, Tacoma would be responsible for a 1.7% share of the funding for the Phase 2 implementation phase of Markets+, equating to more than $4.8 million.
Tacoma Power serves more than 180,000 electric customers in the city of Tacoma and nearby communities, as well providing power to the U.S. military’s Joint Base Lewis-McChord. The utility owns about 643 MW of hydroelectric generation, which account for more than 80% of its nearly carbon-free resource mix. It also operates 2,386 miles of transmission and distribution lines.
The utility’s announcement follows a similar one by Powerex, the largest Markets+ funder, which in January said it had committed to joining and paying its share of Phase 2 funding. (See Powerex Commits to Funding, Joining SPP’s Markets+.)
Last month, Chelan County Public Utility District, another publicly owned utility in Washington, committed to funding Phase 2 but said it still had not decided to join the market. (See Chelan PUD Commits to SPP Markets+ Phase 2 Funding.)
