Southwest Power Pool

Southwest Power Pool and its member companies coordinate the flow of electricity across approximately 60,000 miles of high-voltage transmission lines spanning 14 states.

[1] SPP's story began in the early days of WWII, when America was ramping up production of weapons and military supplies.

Alcoa and Reynolds Metals Company established themselves in Arkansas, which had the largest commercially exploitable bauxite deposit at that time.

Executives of Southwest power utilities decided to pool their generation resources together to ensure the region's reliability and dependability during wartime.

Here are some other notable events in SPP’s history:[2] 1968 - Became NERC Regional Council 1980 - Implemented telecommunications network 1991 - Implemented operating reserve sharing 1994 - Incorporated as nonprofit 1997 - Implemented reliability coordination 1998 - Implemented tariff administration 2004 - Became FERC-approved Regional Transmission Organization 2007 - Launched EIS market 2009 - Integrated Nebraska utilities 2010 - FERC approved Highway/Byway cost allocation methodology and Integrated Transmission Planning Process 2012 - Moved to new Corporate Center 2014 - Launched Integrated Marketplace Became regional balancing authority 2015 - Integrated System joins SPP 2018 - regional entity operation dissolved[3] 2019 - Launched western reliability coordination services 2021 - Western Energy Imbalance Services (WEIS) market starts[4] SPP was incorporated as a nonprofit corporation in 1994 and was approved as a Regional Transmission Organization (RTO) by the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) in 2004.