Arizona Public Service (APS), Salt River Project (SRP), Tucson Electric Power (TEP) and UniSource Energy Services have announced plans to join Southwest Power Pool’s (SPP) Markets+, a day-ahead and real-time energy market, which is expected to cover the northwest, southwest and mountain west regions of the U.S.
The new market is expected to bring enhanced reliability and savings of about $100 million above current market participation, passed back across the electric companies’ customers. It will also add more renewable resources to the energy grid, as Arizona experiences residential and business growth as well as increased energy demand.
Along with other western utilities, Markets+ is anticipated to help the Arizona energy providers respond to market price changes and regional weather events driving energy usage, while giving them access to diverse generation resources. APS, SRP, TEP and UniSource expect to participate in the new market by 2027.
Through Markets+, APS, SRP, TEP and UniSource will have access to hydroelectric, wind and nuclear power to help meet their customers’ needs. The Arizona utilities will be allowed to sell energy, like excess solar power during the winter season, to maintain a balanced electric system, while also taking advantage of cost-savings opportunities.
Markets+ offers participants an independent governance structure to ensure the market meets the current and future requirements of customers and provide each utility with equitable representation and voice in the process. The design is intended to offer a variety of benefits to customers, including:
Increased Reliability
- Participation standards requiring utilities to maintain specific generation levels to sustain a reliable pool of available market resources.
- Improving regional energy flows to better serve customer needs on transmission lines from the Northwest through the Mountain West and down to the Southwest.
- Efficient market structure that allows energy providers greater flexibility in meeting customers’ short-term and long-term energy needs in real time and day-ahead markets. This allows utilities to plan long-term, the next day, hourly and down to even 5-minute intervals.
Greater Cost Savings
- Greater savings for customers from more efficient utilization of generation resources.
More Clean Energy
- Expanded diversity of renewable and clean energy technologies, from solar power and battery energy storage to wind and hydropower, expected across a region from Arizona to Canada.
- Support for participating utilities’ clean energy goals by enabling better movement of clean energy from a shared pool of power plants and technologies.
- Leveraging Southwest Power Pool’s experience as a regional transmission operator, which includes a recent, significant expansion of renewable resources.
