The Western Area Power Administration said its Sierra Nevada region will pursue “final negotiations” to join CAISO’s Extended Day-Ahead Market, notching another — if expected — victory for the ISO in its competition with SPP’s Markets+.
NV Energy’s decision to join CAISO's Extended Day-Ahead Market rather than SPP's Markets+ was based partly on concerns that participation in the latter would “lead to substantial expenditures with limited results,” a representative of the Nevada utility said.
The Bonneville Power Administration’s commitment to fund the second phase of SPP’s Markets+ won’t be swayed by the departure of the executive leading the agency’s day-ahead market initiative, an official told the Markets+ Participants Executive Committee.
Western regulators on the Markets+ State Committee probed an SPP Market Monitoring Unit official on how the department plans to address implementation of the new day-ahead market.
An SPP executive closely involved with developing Markets+ said recent Brattle Group studies on Western day-ahead markets appear to be aimed more at swaying utilities in favor of CAISO’s EDAM than providing an unbiased assessment.
Markets+ proponents argue that the SPP framework allows more flexibility for integrating greenhouse gas emission reduction programs across various states than CAISO’s EDAM.
When Arizona utilities file their next integrated resource plans, they’ll be required to include an analysis of cost savings and other benefits they could realize from Western regional market participation.
The study comparing key features of CAISO’s EDAM and SPP’s Markets+ contains “several material misstatements of facts” and overlooks evidence “directly contrary to its conclusions,” Powerex contends.
BPA would earn $65 million in annual benefits from joining CAISO’s EDAM but face $83 million in increased yearly costs from participating in SPP’s Markets+, according to a new Brattle study.
CAISO focused on CRRs when it served up the latest volley in the ongoing dispute over what played out on the Western grid during the January cold snap that forced Northwest utilities to import high volumes of energy to avoid blackouts.
