A group of 10 electricity service providers, including many that serve Colorado, on Friday said it’s moving ahead to join a larger organization that would ultimately reduce customer costs. A timeline was also set that could finalize a deal by late 2019.
The Mountain West Transmission Group, which includes Xcel Energy’s local operation in Denver, has been exploring membership into the Southwest Power Pool regional transmission system since January. The SPP, which has nearly 100 member companies, serves a wider region from North Dakota to northern Texas.
“Mountain West has reached a point in its negotiations with the Southwest Power Pool management where it believes it is now appropriate to take our potential membership proposal to all SPP stakeholders,” Steve Beuning, Xcel director of market operations, wrote in an email. “We believe there is sufficient evidence at this time that forming a regional transmission organization in the Rocky Mountain West would provide opportunities to reduce customer costs, and maximize resource and electric grid use.”
Supporters say joining the 14-state SPP, which has abundant and affordable wind generation and a robust wholesale power market, could bring $1 billion or more in economic benefits to the region and smooth out operations. But any switch, if not done right, could leave the region more vulnerable to outages, regulators have warned.
Stakeholder meetings to discuss findings, objectives and next steps will start Oct. 13 in Denver and Oct. 16 in Little Rock, Ark. The meetings will be open to the public. If a decision to join SPP is ultimately reached, the Mountain West group would file the request with the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission in mid-2018, with integration completed as soon as late 2019,
The Mountain West group includes Colorado Springs Utilities, Platte River Power Authority in Fort Collins, Public Service Company of Colorado (the Denver operating company of Xcel), Tri‐State Generation and Transmission Association in Westminster, Loveland Area Projects and Colorado River Storage Project. The group serves approximately 6.4 million customers and 16,000 miles of transmission line primarily in the Rocky Mountain region.
