March 21, 2014

Accenture Helps Southwest Power Pool with Successful Launch of Integrated Marketplace

LITTLE ROCK, Ark.; March 21, 2014 – Accenture (NYSE: ACN) and Southwest Power Pool (SPP), a regional transmission organization (RTO), today announced the successful launch of SPP’s integrated marketplace in which market participants buy and sell wholesale energy and reserves in both a day-ahead and real-time market through the operation of a single, consolidated SPP balancing authority.

Through the integrated marketplace, SPP is now able to coordinate next-day generation across the region and provide participants with greater access to reserve energy. The marketplace helps SPP improve regional balancing of electricity supply and demand and to integrate renewable resources. The day-ahead market also provides participants with a mechanism to hedge against transmission congestion charges through the allocation and settlement of transmission congestion rights.

“This was a complex project with many moving parts and involving hundreds of stakeholders. Accenture was an instrumental part of SPP being able to complete this challenging effort on schedule,” said Bruce Rew, SPP Vice President of Operations and executive sponsor of the Integrated Marketplace Program.

Accenture was selected in 2011 to provide services in program and project management, systems integration, technical architecture, regulatory services and readiness and deployment management.

“This is an important milestone for SPP and we are pleased to have helped deliver this project on time, and on budget,” said Greg Smith, a managing director in Accenture’s North America Utilities industry group. “These market implementations are extremely complex, and we are proud to have teamed with SPP, their vendors, and SPP’s market participants for a successful launch.”

With the launch of the integrated marketplace on March 1, 2014, SPP now has the ability to determine which generating units should run the next day for maximum cost-effectiveness. Based on previous cost benefit analysis, SPP’s integrated marketplace is expected to realize up to $100M in annual net benefits across the SPP footprint.

About Accenture
Accenture is a global management consulting, technology services and outsourcing company, with approximately 281,000 people serving clients in more than 120 countries. Combining unparalleled experience, comprehensive capabilities across all industries and business functions, and extensive research on the world’s most successful companies, Accenture collaborates with clients to help them become high-performance businesses and governments. The company generated net revenues of US$28.6 billion for the fiscal year ended Aug. 31, 2013. Its home page is www.accenture.com.

About Southwest Power Pool
SPP is a Regional Transmission Organization, mandated by the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission to ensure reliable supplies of power, adequate transmission infrastructure, and competitive wholesale prices of electricity. As a North American Electric Reliability Corporation Regional Entity, SPP oversees compliance enforcement and reliability standards development. SPP has members in nine states. Its home page is www.spp.org.

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Contacts:

Allen Valahu
Accenture
+ 33 1 53 23 57 54
+ 33 6 24 99 24 42
allen.valahu@accenture.com

Justyna Devraj
Accenture
+ 44 20 7844 0090
+ 44 750 012 4567
justyna.devraj@accenture.com