A dispute around the January cold snap that forced Northwest utilities to sharply increase electricity imports to meet surging demand has become a proxy for the broader day-ahead market contest between CAISO and SPP.

CAISO notched another victory in the competition to bring organized markets to the West when the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power’s oversight board authorized the utility to prepare to join EDAM.

The study finds dividing CAISO’s EDAM from SPP’s Markets+ would create seams that pose a different set of problems than challenges seen at the boundaries of full RTOs in other parts of the U.S.