Why It Matters
Southwest Power Pool Inc. has Williams & Jensen PLLC lobbying for it, according to a registration amendment signed Nov. 9 with an Oct. 1 registration date. The filing carries a $0 filing amount, as registrations do, and lists energy/nuclear and utilities as its issue areas, both for "Southwest Power Pool's Markets+ Initiative."
The firm's new client registration for the client, signed Nov. 5, is the only earlier filing supplied. It also came through Williams & Jensen, and it described the issue as "Southwest Power Pool's Market Initiative."
The amendment lists three lobbyists: Jay Fields II, George Baker and Dan Ziegler. All three also appear on the Nov. 5 registration.
Broader Context
The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) approved Southwest Power Pool's Consolidated Planning Process, which combines transmission planning and generator interconnection in a three-year cycle, according to a March 13 concurrence from Commissioner Rosner. Rosner's concurrence says the process will connect new generation faster and could avoid over $100 million in duplicative transmission costs per planning cycle.
Southwest Power Pool and the California Independent System Operator submitted a joint report to FERC on Western market coordination, Southwest Power Pool announced on Oct. 1. The announcement says the report lays out a coordinated approach to future "market seams" issues.
Southwest Power Pool's Markets+ page says Markets+ is more than a day-ahead market, a bundle of services that will centralize day-ahead and real-time unit commitment and dispatch.
Between The Lines
Rep. Lauren Boebert (R-CO) issued a press release Oct. 6 welcoming a Department of Energy order under Section 202(c) of the Federal Power Act. The order directs Tri-State, the co-owners, and Southwest Power Pool to keep Craig Station Unit 1 available through Dec. 25 and dispatch it only as needed.
At a July 22 Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee FERC oversight hearing, FERC Commissioner Judy Chang said the commission recently approved a Southwest Power Pool proposal that uses a consolidated planning process to give generators cost certainty on interconnection.
Competitive Landscape
Energy Alabama registered Nov. 9 to lobby on utilities and energy/nuclear, the same two issue areas as Southwest Power Pool.
First Solar Inc. hired Capitol67 Strategies LLC on Nov. 6 to lobby on energy/nuclear issues.
The Bottom Line
The registration puts Southwest Power Pool's Markets+ work before federal offices through an outside law firm. Anyone tracking the initiative can now follow that team's later quarterly reports.
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