At their August 5-6 meetings, Southwest Power Pool’s Regional State Committee and Board of Directors approved increases to the planning reserve margins member utilities are required to maintain in support of regional grid reliability.
PRM represents the amount of back-up power utilities must have to guard against unplanned conditions or events on the regional power grid.
SPP said the action will further help the region prepare for extreme weather events and other circumstances that lead to higher-than-usual demand for electricity. Such episodes have become increasingly common in recent years, such as with Winter Storm Uri in 2021 and Winter Storm Elliott in 2022, it said.
SPP’s Regional State Committee and board approved minimum requirements of a 36% winter-season PRM and a 16% summer-season PRM, effective beginning summer 2026 and winter 2026/27.
This means that load responsible entities in SPP’s region must have access to enough generating capacity to serve their peak consumption with at least 36% margin during the winter season and at least 16% margin during the summer.
This action marks the first time a winter PRM requirement has been defined separately from SPP’s summer PRM requirement and was taken to ensure member utilities appropriately acquire enough generating capacity for both seasons.
The current 15% summer PRM requirement was previously applied to the winter season also.
The board also received a report detailing the challenges SPP and its members face with the increasing risk of having inadequate electricity supply to meet demand.
The report, titled Our Generational Challenge: A Reliable Future for Electricity, is a comprehensive summary of SPP’s work to leverage diverse energy resources to meet the ever-rising demand for electricity, SPP said.
It calls for increased engagement, collaboration and consensus among government energy regulators, elected policymakers, utilities, regional transmission organizations and customers.
