Let’s face the facts, unless you dwell in the “land of utilities” and our 1,690 acronyms*, some announcements probably don’t seem as big to you as they seem to us.
However, when we announced our entry into the Southwest Power Pool (SPP) Western Energy Imbalance market (WEIS) last August – while a mouthful of words -- was a very big deal for our customers.
As a perfect encapsulation of why it was a big deal, our involvement in SPP WEIS saved you $2.1 million in energy costs in the last five months of 2022.
The cost savings were realized thanks to energy-related purchases through the WEIS market that were below our cost to generate electricity locally and market sales of excess power generation.
As our Chief Executive Officer Travas Deal stated, it’s just the beginning of a promising future.
“To realize more than $2 million in cost savings in just five months highlights why we joined SPP WEIS,” says Deal. “By participating in shared resource pools like SPP WEIS, we can help maintain system reliability and manage energy costs for our customers – no matter regulatory mandates or market-related pressures.”
In a nutshell, SPP WEIS helps us manage current and future energy costs by having real-time access to the latest market intelligence, enhance the resiliency of our electric grid amidst a changing energy landscape and help us access the lowest cost resources from other member utilities.
SPP is a regional transmission organization and a nonprofit corporation mandated by the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission to help organizations like ours meet their energy-related goals and better manage energy costs for customers.
*Number made up by author. Generally accurate in scope, but actual number could be closer to 10,000 acronyms.