CAISO scored a geographically small but symbolically significant victory with the announcement that two Black Hills Energy subsidiaries will move to the ISO’s Western Energy Imbalance Market.

A single Western market is one of the safest bets to address the region’s reliability and cost issues in the face of extreme weather events, proponents of the West-Wide Governance Pathways Initiative said during a panel discussion.

The integration of Markets+ with the Western Resource Adequacy Program would be among a handful of key reliability benefits of SPP’s Western day-ahead offering, according to an “issue alert” published by 10 entities that backed development of the market.

California energy agency heads appeared before state lawmakers to pitch the proposed CAISO governance changes being developed by the West-Wide Governance Pathways Initiative.

CAISO will recommend its board approve a proposal to eventually give the WEM Governing Body increased authority over both the Western EIM and EDAM.

The WEIM Governing Body voted to change its name to the “Western Energy Markets” Governing Body to better reflect its full scope of responsibility since it began overseeing CAISO’s EDAM.

Participants in the West-Wide Governance Pathways Initiative face a busy meeting schedule this summer as the group’s leaders look to advance on parallel fronts to develop a Western “regional organization.”