SACRAMENTO — In the competition between two Western day-ahead markets — CAISO’s Extended Day Ahead Market (EDAM) and SPP’s Markets+ — the two market operators have “sort of played off one another,” an industry observer said. 

Kris Raper, vice president of strategic engagement and external affairs at WECC, offered her views on the developing Western markets May 6 during a California Energy Transition Summit hosted by Infocast. 

For a while, it seemed like CAISO’s Western Energy Imbalance Market (WEIM) and EDAM “were really the only game,” Raper said during a panel discussion on Western markets. 

But then “SPP sort of came in the room and they had to create a space for themselves,” Raper said. 

“My personal observation is that SPP has sort of stood back a bit and seen within … CAISO, within the EIM and the EDAM formation, what has worked for them and what has not,” Raper said. “And they have taken a script from that.” 

“It’s a good thing, right?” she added. “If it makes them all better and utilizes more stakeholder input.” 

Raper’s comments came in response to an audience member question on what California can learn from SPP’s Western market expansion. 

Another panelist, Western Freedom Executive Director Kathleen Staks, also responded. 

“California has learned that … the hatred for California is real,” Staks said. “That is part of why SPP saw that moment. California was not responding to the needs of the West in an adequate way.” 

Staks is Launch Committee co-chair for the West-Wide Governance Pathways Initiative, which is developing a new independent Western “regional organization” (RO) to oversee CAISO’s WEIM and EDAM. Some potential market participants are uncomfortable with markets led by CAISO, whose Board of Governors members are appointed by the California governor. 

The Pathways effort now hinges on Senate Bill 540 in the California legislature, which would allow an independent RO to oversee CAISO energy markets. (See California Lawmakers Seek to Trump-proof Pathways Initiative Bill.) 

Affordability, Reliability

Raper described many of her comments as “personal observations” and noted that WECC has a neutral view on energy markets.  

“If it adds to reliability, then that’s something we would support,” Raper said. 

The market developments are occurring as lawmakers in several states are responding to constituent concerns by taking back power that was delegated to utility commissions, Raper said. That means a new group of stakeholders who must be educated on the issues. 

“A lot of the reason that legislators are hearing from their constituents is because costs are so high,” Staks said. 

If SB 540 doesn’t pass, Staks said, utilities that haven’t yet committed to a day-ahead market may choose a non-CAISO option and leave CAISO’s WEIM. 

“That is not good from an affordability standpoint for California,” Staks said. “It is not good from a reliability standpoint, because it makes it harder to trade with our neighbors, and it’s not as good from an emissions standpoint.”