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.
The Public Power Council has asked the Bonneville Power Administration to choose SPP’s Markets+ when the agency issues its day-ahead market “leaning” in April.
Western state regulators approved SPP Markets+ tariff language designed to address a “gap” in the accuracy of information to be shared with the market monitor under FERC’s duty of candor requirements.
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 Bonneville Power Administration plans to issue a draft decision on its day-ahead market participation in August, followed by a final decision in November.
Despite the recent release of results from a study on the two competing day-ahead markets in the West, two New Mexico utilities said they need to conduct more analysis before they make a choice.
Western Power Trading Forum/Public Generating Pool
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.
Stakeholders have discussed the likelihood that there may be two day-ahead markets in the West, CAISO’s Extended Day-ahead Market and SPP’s Markets+ and/or RTO West.
