Southwest Power Pool

The Southwest Power Pool (SPP) is the founding member of the North American Electric Reliability Corporation (NERC).

SPP's story began in the early days of WWII, when America was furiously ramping up production of weapons and military supplies. After entering the War, the USA had an immediate and crucial need to produce aluminum for aircraft manufacture. Alcoa and Reynolds Metals Company established themselves in Arkansas, which had the largest commercially exploitable bauxite deposit at that time. In 1941, government agency Defense Plant Corporation opened a plant in Jones Mill, Arkansas, with the intent of operating 24/7 to supply the war effort. The government leased the plant to Alcoa for operations. The Jones Mill Plant alone required 120,000 kilowatts (kW) of electrical power to operate; this exceeded the state's entire generation (100,000 kW at peak, excluding outages). Due to the war effort, there was not enough manpower nor raw materials to build further electrical generation. Executives of Southwest power utilities decided to pool their generation resources together to ensure the region's reliability and dependability during the wartime. The existence of Southwest Power Pool was out of necessity and scarcity. After the war, executives saw the expertise and efficiency that was created and decided to remain a power pool.

Southwest Power Pool was formed Dec. 14, 1941, with 11 regional utilities entering into an inter-company agreement. The 11 companies were: Arkansas Power & Light, Louisiana Power & Light, and Mississippi Power & Light (subsidiaries of Entergy), Southwestern Gas and Electric and Public Service Company of Oklahoma (now subsidiaries of American Electric Power), Nebraska Power, Texas Power & Light, Southern Light and Power, Oklahoma Gas and Electric, Kansas Gas and Electric, and Empire District Electric.

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