Now that SPP has set planning reserve margins for the 2026 summer and 2026/27 winter seasons, the grid operator has turned its attention to setting up a longer-term PRM.

CAISO scored a geographically small but symbolically significant victory with the announcement that two Black Hills Energy subsidiaries will move to the ISO’s Western Energy Imbalance Market.

The Bonneville Power Administration will delay its decision on choosing between SPP’s Markets+ and CAISO’s Extended Day-Ahead Market until May 2025.

SPP issued a Level 1 energy emergency alert Aug. 26, saying widespread high temperatures in the Great Plains led to tightening reliability conditions in its 14-state balancing area authority.

FERC accepted SPP’s revisions to its WEIS market tariff related to the residual supply index and ensuring that affiliated market participants’ resources are evaluated together.

SPP assuaged potential Markets+ participants that FERC's deficiency filing and other recent developments have not hindered its commitment to Western expansion.

SPP directors and regulators have approved the grid operator’s first winter planning reserve margin, endorsing a base PRM that is 3 percentage points higher than many of its utilities wanted.

SPP CEO Barbara Sugg has announced that she will retire from the RTO on April 1, 2025, after 35 years of service.

SPP is considering a 765-kV solution and several 500-kV proposals in its Permian Basin footprint in Texas and New Mexico as it dabbles with extra-high-voltage transmission lines.

SPP’s Markets+ hit a snag after FERC issued a deficiency letter outlining 16 problems the RTO must address in the tariff it filed for the proposed Western day-ahead market in March.