FERC Approves SPP’s Separate Winter, Summer PRMs

AI generated summary

The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) has approved a tariff revision by the Southwest Power Pool (SPP) that establishes separate planning reserve margins (PRMs) for winter and summer seasons. This decision aims to enhance reliability by acknowledging the distinct risks associated with each season, particularly as winter has seen increasing reliability challenges. FERC's order emphasizes that separate PRMs will better align resource adequacy requirements with seasonal reliability risks, ensuring that load-responsible entities plan appropriately for both seasons.

SPP's probabilistic loss-of-load expectation (LOLE) study indicated a significant loss-of-load risk in winter, influenced by cold-weather outages and the integration of intermittent resources. Despite protests from several electric cooperatives regarding the proportionality of winter resource adequacy requirements and the swift implementation of the new framework, FERC upheld SPP's approach. The approved PRMs set a 36% margin for winter and a 16% margin for summer, effective for the 2026/27 and 2026 seasons, respectively, reflecting a more robust method of determining resource adequacy based on expected unserved energy.