Arizona public power utility Salt River Project, along with Arizona Public Service, Tucson Electric Power and UniSource Energy Services, on Nov. 25 announced plans to join Southwest Power Pool’s Markets+, a day-ahead and real-time energy market that is anticipated to span through the northwest, southwest and mountain west regions of the U.S.
“The new market is expected to bring enhanced reliability and savings of nearly $100 million above current market participation, passed back across the electric companies’ customers,” a news release from the utilities said. “It will also support the addition of more renewable resources to the energy grid, as Arizona continues to experience residential and business growth and record-breaking energy demand.”
Along with other western utilities, Markets+ is anticipated to help the Arizona energy providers respond efficiently to market price changes and regional weather events driving energy usage, while giving them access to a larger pool of diverse generation resources.
After several years of strategic planning and development, APS, SRP, TEP and UniSource expect to participate in the new market as early as 2027.
“SRP’s participation in SPP Markets+ is a key component of our plan to meet the growing energy needs of our customers reliably and affordably and will help us achieve our 2035 Sustainability Goals,” said Josh Robertson, SRP Director of Energy Market Strategy. “We look forward to working with utilities in the region to bring the cost and resilience benefits to our respective customers.”
Through Markets+, APS, SRP, TEP and UniSource "will have greater access to substantial cost-effective hydroelectric, wind and nuclear power to help meet their customers’ needs. When demand is lower, the Arizona utilities can sell energy, like excess solar power during the winter season, to maintain a balanced electric system, while also taking advantage of cost-savings opportunities," the utilities said.
Over the past several years, APS, SRP, TEP and UniSource actively participated in workshops and planning meetings with other western utilities to equitably develop the new market’s design. Markets+ offers participants an independent governance structure that ensures the market meets the needs of customers now and into the future and provides each utility 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 20 years of experience as a regional transmission operator, which includes a recent, significant expansion of renewable resources.
