The coronavirus pandemic has curtailed demand for electricity and made it challenging for new entities to go live with the Western Energy Imbalance Market, but two recent activations went well despite the awkward timing, the EIM’s Governing Body heard Wednesday.

Governing Body members were also briefed on EIM benefits and the impending departure of a member of the EIM’s Body of State Regulators (BOSR).

On April 1, Arizona’s Salt River Project (SRP) and Seattle City Light both went live with the EIM, joining the interstate real-time trading market’s nine other active participants while many of their employees were working remotely.

“Since then, both entities have been operating smoothly in the market,” said Petar Ristanovic, CAISO vice president of technology. In a slide, he wrote, “This was the smoothest EIM activation so far. Both entities were well prepared and their personnel trained so they were passing all hourly tests from the start.”

COVID-19 has kept most CAISO workers at home, too, while control room staff have been isolated from others and separated by crews into two control rooms, one at CAISO’s Folsom headquarters and the other in its secondary control room in the nearby town of Lincoln, General Counsel Roger Collanton told Governing Body members. The ISO also set up a “virtual control room” in Folsom to use, for instance, when the main control room needs to be cleaned, Collanton said.

CAISO hasn’t experienced any significant problems during the pandemic, he said. “We’ve seen no grid reliability issues, and we’re not predicting any at this time.”

CAISO compared expected loads without California’s stay-at-home order and actual loads with the order in place, Collanton said. Weekday loads were down by about 7.5% during peak-demand times and down 5% during off-peak times. Weekend load reductions were less — 3% during peak demand and 1% off-peak.

Energy prices were down by 26% in the day-ahead market and 30% in the real-time market, he said.

Benefits Heading Toward $1 Billion

Mark Rothleder, CAISO’s vice president for market policy and performance, said the EIM saw “robust” member benefits of nearly $58 million during the first quarter of 2020, bringing the EIM’s total benefits since its start in 2014 to almost $920 million.

SRP and Seattle City Light have already begun seeing benefits from joining the EIM, Rothleder and utility representatives said.

The market is on course to accumulate $1 billion in benefits later this year, he said. The benefits often come from buying and selling excess renewable energy.

“We’re seeing continued benefits and tracking well,” Rothleder said. “In fact, we’re probably tracking toward $1 billion in benefits since the start of the EIM — I’m estimating probably in the third quarter of this year.”

White Joining WECC

In a briefing from the EIM’s BOSR, Chair Letha Tawney, with the Oregon Public Utility Commission, announced that Commissioner Jordan White, a familiar figure in Western energy circles, will be leaving the BOSR and resigning from the Utah Public Service Commission effective May 20.

“He’ll be joining WECC [also headquartered in Salt Lake City], so he’s not going far, both literally and figuratively,” she said. “But we will miss him. He is an engaged and effective member of the BOSR.”

WECC, the Western Electricity Coordinating Council, announced May 1 that White will be filling a newly created role as vice president of strategic engagement and deputy general counsel.

White served in multiple roles in the EIM, both as chair of the BOSR just prior to Tawney’s term and as a current member of the Governing Body’s nominating committee.

“For those of you who’ve worked with him and know him personally, he’s just very enjoyable and easy to work with and really brings a thoughtful perspective to the conversation,” Tawney said. “We will wish him all the best in his new role.”

Utah PSC Chair Thad LeVar will represent Utah on the BOSR after White’s departure. Other BOSR members have started the process to replace White on the EIM nominating committee. “We’re hoping to have that done by May 20,” she said.