Major SPP Western Expansion Opens Clean Energy Opportunities Across Region

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DENVER — Today the Southwest Power Pool (SPP) officially expanded, connecting western and eastern electric grids and providing increased access to clean energy for major utilities across the West and Great Plains in Colorado, Wyoming, Nebraska, Utah, and Arizona.

Regional Transmission Organizations (RTOs) like SPP allow states and regions to share power, increasing electric grid reliability and giving electric providers the opportunity to purchase more affordable wholesale energy on open markets. Environmental groups like Sierra Club support RTO expansions for their creation of more efficient and cost-effective energy markets that are better able to utilize resources like wind and solar across the grid.

“Historically, regional energy grids have lacked interconnection, which has contributed to inefficiencies that can drive higher energy rates,” said Jessi Eidbo, Policy Advisor at Sierra Club. “We cannot understate how momentous this moment is if utilities and independent power producers are able to take advantage of the opportunity. A larger system footprint means greater resilience, greater access to a diversity of low-cost renewable energy resources, and significant opportunities for system efficiencies that can drive down consumer electricity costs.”

SPP’s expansion will include major Colorado utilities, including Colorado Springs Utilities (CSU), which is controversially seeking to extend the life of the Ray Nixon coal unit at the Colorado legislature. Public interest groups like Sierra Club have pushed back on that delay and referenced a study showing that walking back climate goals would be more costly for CSU customers.

“Colorado’s climate goals are seriously threatened by utility efforts to revert back to expensive fossil fuels, and their customers will ultimately pay the price,” said Margaret Kran-Annexstein, Director of Colorado Sierra Club. “This is good news for the climate only if utilities take advantage. Regulators and utilities like CSU must  seize every possible opportunity to clean up their portfolios and, in doing so, lower rates for their customers.”

Power providers included in the expansion include CSU, PRPA, Basin Electric Cooperative, Desert Power Electric Cooperative, Municipal Energy Agency of Nebraska, Tri-State Generation and Transmission Platte River Power Authority, and Western Area Power Administration’s Upper Great Plains-Western Region, Colorado River Storage Project and Rocky Mountain Region. See SPP’s map, taken from their press release here, below.

About the Sierra Club

The Sierra Club is America’s largest and most influential grassroots environmental organization, with millions of members and supporters. In addition to protecting every person’s right to get outdoors and access the healing power of nature, the Sierra Club works to promote clean energy, safeguard the health of our communities, protect wildlife, and preserve our remaining wild places through grassroots activism, public education, lobbying, and legal action. For more information, visit www.sierraclub.org.