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by Jason Hebert
With FERC’s recent approval of the Markets+ Tariff and Southwest Power Pool (SPP) securing the necessary participant commitments, phase two of development is now officially underway, with market systems beginning to be built starting no later than Q2 2025.
SPP Markets+ is designed as a competitive alternative to CAISO's Extended Day-Ahead Market (EDAM) and aims to bring enhanced reliability, economic efficiency, and renewable integration to the Western Interconnection. While SPP has long been a key player in managing energy markets, Markets+ represents a new level of market evolution, providing unique advantages that set it apart from existing frameworks like SPP’s Integrated Marketplace, WEIS, and RTO Expansion. (Explore the history of the Western markets development.)
Let’s explore what makes SPP Markets Plus different and how you can optimally prepare for its go-live.
Key Differences: What Makes SPP Markets+ Stand Out?
SPP Markets Plus is not an RTO – a key distinction from SPP's Integrated Marketplace. Instead, it functions as an independent market operator while keeping transmission and balancing authority responsibilities with existing entities.
This flexibility makes it an attractive option for participants who want market benefits without full RTO commitment.
Here’s how it stands apart:
1. Comprehensive Market Offering Without RTO Obligations
Unlike the Western Energy Imbalance Service (WEIS), which offers only real-time imbalance services, SPP Markets Plus provides both a day-ahead and real-time market, giving participants greater opportunities for cost optimization and reliability enhancements.
- Day-Ahead Market: Reduces price volatility and improves scheduling efficiency
- Real-Time Market: Balances supply and demand on a five-minute basis
- Reliability Unit Commitment (RUC): Ensures adequate reserves and stability
This makes SPP Markets Plus a more robust option than WEIS while still offering flexibility for entities that may not be ready to join a full RTO.
Source: SPP
2. Hurdle-Free Transmission for a Seamless Market
One of the biggest challenges in Western energy markets has been the inefficiencies caused by seams management – the friction between different balancing authorities and transmission service providers. Markets+ aims to minimize these inefficiencies by providing hurdle-free transmission service across its footprint, supporting the seamless integration of resources.
SPP leverages its experience in Integrated Marketplace transmission planning while keeping in place bilateral agreements and Open Access Transmission Tariffs (OATT) to ensure fair access to the grid.
3. Designed for Renewable Energy Growth
SPP Markets+ will accommodate variable energy resources (VERs) such as wind and solar. It provides a structured participation model that allows renewables to maximize economic value while maintaining system reliability. Specifically, this market:
- Uses persistence forecasts unless actively dispatching resources.
- Facilitates the integration of diverse energy resources across a wide geographic area.
- Enhances the ability to optimize energy storage solutions.
These features make it an ideal market for utilities and independent power producers looking to capitalize on the ongoing renewable energy transition.
4. Stakeholder-Driven Governance & Market Flexibility
Unlike CAISO’s EDAM, which operates under California’s regulatory jurisdiction, SPP Markets Plus offers a separate governance structure that allows greater regional stakeholder involvement. Entities joining it will sign a Market Participant Agreement or Stakeholder Agreement, ensuring a more collaborative and flexible market evolution.
Source: SPP
The Role of Advanced Software in Optimal Markets+ Participation
With the launch on the horizon, participants must prepare for an entirely new set of operational, financial, and compliance challenges. To fully capture the benefits of this market, you need a comprehensive, automated software solution that streamlines everything from bid submission to settlements – a truly advanced bid-to-bill platform that can be deployed in the Cloud, on-premise, or in a hybrid configuration.
SPP’s existing Settlement Management System (SMS) will be used for Markets+ settlements, but you will need an internal platform to process, verify, and optimize your market transactions, which is where PowerCore™ becomes a game-changer. Its broad capabilities are shown in the graphic below.
Key Benefits of PowerCore in SPP Markets+
Yes Energy’s PowerCore platform automates bidding and scheduling workflows, enabling the seamless management of day-ahead and real-time bids. It integrates market price and weather forecasts for optimized bidding, while ensuring compliance with all Markets+ scheduling requirements.
PowerCore also offers advanced settlements functionality, including shadow settlements and dispute management. This means you can:
- Verify SPP settlement statements in near real-time
- Identify discrepancies and efficiently manage settlement disputes
- Conduct “what-if” scenario analyses to optimize bidding strategies
With congestion and transmission optimization, you can analyze Locational Marginal Pricing (LMP) impacts on assets, optimize congestion hedging strategies using TCR analytics, and automate transmission service requests and billing.
In addition, PowerCore provides end-to-end financial and risk management, so you can integrate energy trading risk management (ETRM) with settlement data. You can also track financial exposure in real-time and automate billing and invoice reconciliation with SPP charges.
Preparing for the SPP Markets Plus Future
SPP Markets+ is expected to go live in 2027, which means that participants need to start their market readiness activities now, to include:
- Developing bid strategies that leverage the day-ahead and real-time benefits of Markets+
- Upgrading settlement processes to handle SPP’s sophisticated charge structures
- Implementing an end-to-end, bid-to-bill platform like Yes Energy’s PowerCore™ to optimize financial and operational efficiency.
With structured and unstructured testing set to begin in 2026, SPP Markets Plus entities have to implement the right systems and tools to ensure a smooth transition. Leveraging advanced market participation software like PowerCore to automate all front-to-back-office workflows and optimize operations ensures that your enterprise will hit the ground running upon the launch.
This is the time to get ahead and stay ahead in SPP Markets Plus by closely evaluating the vast capabilities of PowerCore, which is already the dominant bid-to-bill software system in the West that seamlessly integrates both existing and future markets. Among a broad array of functionalities, PowerCore allows participating entities of any size to:
- Automate essential workflows for power marketing and balancing authorities
- Optimize all front-to-back office mission-critical functionality
- Better utilize staff and IT resources
- Elevate data analytics, reporting, compliance and overall enterprise value
- Build competitive advantages and better manage risks
- Create more value for stakeholders customers
- Enhance resource management and sustainability
Schedule a call and discuss how PowerCore and Yes Energy’s deep ISO/RTO expertise will ensure that your team is able to capture all of the benefits available in SPP Markets+.
About the author: Jason Hebert’s journey through the energy industry started in 1995, encompassing roles in trading, asset management, and software solution selling. At Yes Energy, he is the chief evangelist for the PowerCore™ platform, working with existing and prospective clients to help them automate and streamline their energy operations. He holds a bachelor’s degree in biochemistry and molecular biology with honors from Washington University and system operator licenses in both SPP and ERCOT.
