Arizona’s largest utilities announced Monday that they intend to join a Western electricity market organized by the Arkansas-based grid operator Southwest Power Pool, spurning a planned regional market being developed by California.
The utilities — Arizona Public Service, Salt River Project, Tucson Electric Power and UniSource Energy Services — said that SPP’s Markets+ proposal for a day-ahead and real-time electricity market in the West offered the best opportunity to lower costs and bring more renewable energy to the grid.
“Arizona is one of the fastest growing states in the country and we are thoughtfully planning for the future and evolving our operations to continue to provide top-tier service and reliability to our customers at an affordable cost,” Brian Cole, APS vice president of resource management, said in a statement. “Together with our neighboring utilities, APS plans to join Markets+ to efficiently deliver energy and bolster the resilience of our shared energy grid in Arizona and across the region.”
The decision comes as Western utilities are weighing whether to join Markets+ or another day-ahead market proposal from the California Independent System Operator. Both options would expand the footprint of the Western grid to increase reliability during periods of extreme weather. It’s expected the markets would also lower costs and greenhouse gas emissions by allowing states to better distribute low-cost renewable energy.
