The Craig Station coal-burning power plant in Moffat County is pictured Feb. 27, 2020. Tri-State Generation plans to close the plant by 2030.
Hoping to lower wholesale electricity costs, increase price transparency, and mitigate congestion on the transmission system for participating markets, the Southwest Power Pool launched its Western Energy Imbalance Services market Monday morning.
Tri-State Generation and Transmission Association is one of several regional utilities are participating in the market.
The real-time balancing market is the latest of SPP’s contract-based Western Energy Services to be implemented in the Western Interconnection.
“This is an exciting step for SPP and our new market participants in the west. Our electricity markets have played a big role in lowering costs, integrating renewables and enhancing reliability in the east, and we’re excited to see a new part of the country begin to see similar benefits,” said SPP President and CEO Barbara Sugg. “I’m hopeful this is just the beginning of valuable partnerships between SPP and western utilities that will help them and the customers they serve meet their financial, reliability and renewable- energy goals.”