Spra

Since 1957, rural electric cooperatives and public power systems in the southwestern region have been joined together as members of the Southwestern Power Resources Association (SPRA). What began as the Committee on Power for the Southwest, SPRA continues as a voluntary organization of consumer-owned electric systems located in Arkansas, Kansas, Louisiana, Missouri, Oklahoma and Texas. These systems are customers of the Southwestern Power Administration, headquartered in Tulsa, Oklahoma, which markets hydroelectric power generated at 24 multi-purpose Corps of Engineers water projects in this region. SPRA has a record of significant accomplishments on behalf of its membership. It supports appropriations for both the Corps of Engineers and the Southwestern Power Administration for water development studies, project construction, operation and maintenance (O&M), and the federal power marketing activities. We boast the first of its kind, tri-party Memorandum of Agreement (MOA), with Southwestern Power Administration and the US Army Corps of Engineers, allowing SPRA members to directly fund Corps non-routine O&M work necessary to ensure the reliability of hydropower projects. SPRA has been a major force in defeating proposals to alter national policies requiring federal power be sold at cost and made available to nonprofit consumer-owned electric systems. These policies were enacted by Congress more than 90 years ago as a means to assure the benefits of national water resources development are retained by the public. SPRA activities have benefited millions of rural and small town electric consumers in the Southwest region, while providing solid support for repayment of the federal investment in the power facilities in a consistent and timely manner. Grassroots support by its membership has assured the continued flow of federal power to the region on a not-for-profit basis.