After just one year of involvement in a regional power pool, Colorado Springs Utilities has saved its customers approximately $4.7 million in energy costs, the public power utility recently reported.
Cost savings are realized thanks to energy-related purchases through the Southwest Power Pool that are below Colorado Springs Utilities’ cost to generate electricity locally and market sales of excess power generation.
A Sept. 14, 2023, announcement by SPP will likely mean additional cost savings and growing access to affordable and reliable energy resources for Springs Utilities customers in the years to come, the utility said.
SPP will soon become the first organization in the U.S. to provide full regional transmission organization services in both the Eastern and Western Interconnections of the nation’s power grid.
Colorado Springs Utilities will officially join the RTO by April 2026, along with several other energy providers and organizations.
“Today’s energy industry and related regulatory mandates are rapidly changing and becoming more costly to navigate.” says Chief Executive Officer Travas Deal. “By participating in shared resource pools like SPP’s RTO, we can help maintain system reliability and manage energy costs for our customers – no matter the mandates or market-related pressures. The upcoming expansion of pooled resources will provide a big boost to this effort.”
In addition to Colorado Springs Utilities’ participation, the RTO will include Basin Electric Power Cooperative, Deseret Generation and Transmission Cooperative, Municipal Energy Agency of Nebraska, Platte River Power Authority, and Tri-State Generation and Transmission Association.
Additionally, three regions of the Western Area Power Administration (WAPA) – Colorado River Storage Project (CRSP), Rocky Mountain Region (RM) and Upper Great Plans-West (UGP) – will also join the RTO in 2026.
According to SPP, RTO membership is expected to continue to grow in 2027 and beyond.
As a precursor to officially joining the RTO, Colorado Springs Utilities became a member of SPP’s Western Energy Imbalance Service market in in August 2022.
Participation in resource pools like WEIS and the RTO “helps to ensure economic and reliable supplies of power; achieve renewable energy goals; enable more holistic transmission planning; and open access to the wholesale electricity market,” the utility said.
