SPP Regional Transmission Organization Expansion West and What it Means for Colorado

When: Sept 5, 6pm

Where: Virtual

In early 2026 several major Colorado Utilities will be joining the Southwest Power Pool’s (SPP) Regional Transmission Organization (RTO) as it expands into the Western Interconnection. The SPP will bring an organized market to Colorado and nearby states with the benefits of increased reliability and better economics, with a Brattle Group study predicting $49 million in annual savings. We will be joined by Steve Johnson of the SPP who will discuss what this means for Colorado utilities and ratepayers.

He will cover the basics of how energy markets work to create optimal economics to lower the cost of energy while improving reliability along with unique considerations for us in Colorado. He will discuss how the market approaches dispatch, resource planning, interconnection, and other concepts. He will also explore questions around what it means for Colorado’s goals for increasing renewable energy generation, improving transmission, and broader issues such as load growth and recent orders from the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC). Colorado Utilities joining the SPP RTO include Black Hills Energy, WAPA, Platte River Power Authority, Colorado Springs Utilities, and Tri State Generation & Transmission, United Power, and others.

Steve Johnson joined Southwest Power Pool in August of 2020 after a 20-year career with Western Area Power Administration and was named SPP’s Senior Director of Markets Administration in June of 2022. Johnson started his career in 1996 as an apprentice operator at Hetch Hetchy Water and Power near his hometown of Sonora, California before joining WAPA in Loveland, Colorado in 2000 as a power system operator. Prior to joining SPP, Steve finished his career with WAPA as Senior Vice President and Manager of the Colorado River Storage Project. Johnson’s current role includes administration of the SPP RTO’s day-ahead and congestion hedging markets, SPP’s transmission tariff and coordination of market design updates. Johnson is also part of the team facilitating RTO expansion.