Arizona Public Service, Salt River Project and Tucson Electric Power announced they are jointly exploring the possibility of adding nuclear generation.
Arizona Corporation Commissioner Kevin Thompson said he thinks his state’s four major utilities may have erred in committing to joining SPP’s Markets+ instead of CAISO’s Extended Day-Ahead Market.
The joint announcement by APS, SRP, TEP and UniSource Energy marks a significant win for SPP after a string of victories for CAISO’s competing Extended Day-Ahead Market.
CAISO will be inherently compromised in its role as an operator of a deeper Western market because of its conflicting responsibilities as BA within that market, a group of entities that support SPP’s Markets+ argue in their latest “issue alert.”
The New Mexico utility announced its intention to join CAISO’s Extended Day-Ahead Market, extending EDAM’s reach farther into the Desert Southwest in its latest victory over SPP’s Markets+.
Markets+ proponents argue that the SPP framework allows more flexibility for integrating greenhouse gas emission reduction programs across various states than CAISO’s EDAM.
When Arizona utilities file their next integrated resource plans, they’ll be required to include an analysis of cost savings and other benefits they could realize from Western regional market participation.
Proponents of SPP’s Markets+ contend in their latest “issue alert” that the framework provides a much more equitable solution to tackling market seams than under CAISO’s EDAM.
