By Hudson Sangree

FOLSOM, Calif. — CAISO’s Western Energy Imbalance Market posted more than $801 million in benefits for its participants after five years of reporting quarterly results, the EIM’s Governing Body members heard Wednesday.

Mark Rothleder, the ISO’s vice president for market quality and California regulatory affairs, told the Governing Body’s four current members (one seat is vacant) that the EIM racked up $64 million in benefits in the third quarter of 2019 — its 20th quarterly report.

“It marks a five-year mark in terms of operation of the EIM,” Rothleder said.

Arizona Public Service received the bulk of the third-quarter benefits, with more than $20 million in savings, followed by PacifiCorp and Portland General Electric, which each benefited by about $9.5 million, according to the ISO.

The benefits were less than the $100 million posted during the third quarter of 2018 because natural gas price spikes last year created additional benefits for EIM participants, Rothleder said.

The real-time EIM uses security-constrained economic dispatch technology to find and deliver low-cost electricity across eight Western states and facilitates the use of renewable energy that might otherwise be curtailed.

With new members steadily joining, the EIM is on track by 2022 to have members representing more 77% of load in the Western Interconnection, Rothleder said.

Its nascent competitor, SPP’s Western Energy Imbalance Service, started up in June and announced its first three members Sept. 9. (See WAPA, Basin, Tri-State Sign up with SPP EIS.)

The EIM’s nine current members include Idaho Power, NV Energy, Powerex, Puget Sound Energy and Sacramento Municipal Utility District. Those scheduled to join include Arizona’s Salt River Project and Seattle City Light in 2020, the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power and Public Service Company of New Mexico in 2021, and the Bonneville Power Administration in 2022.

“We’ve got a robust set of implementations coming up,” Rothleder told Governing Body members.

Regional Issue Forum Changes

At the EIM meeting Wednesday, Pam Sporborg, with Portland General Electric, made her first presentation, by phone, as the new chair of the EIM’s Regional Issues Forum.

Sporborg recently took over from Therese Hampton, executive director of the Pacific Northwest’s Public Generating Pool.

“She’s leaving quite big shoes to fill,” Sporborg said. “I’m looking forward to taking on the chair role and all the work to hold the RIF together.”

Jennifer Gardner, a senior attorney with Western Resource Advocates, has assumed the role of the RIF’s vice chair.

The RIF’s next meeting will be Dec. 3 in Las Vegas, where the EIM Governing Body is set to meet Dec. 4.

There will be updates from new EIM entrants such as Tucson Electric Power, a discussion of resource sufficiency versus resource adequacy, and perhaps a presentation from FERC on price formation, Sporborg said.

“We’re putting together quite an exciting agenda for that meeting,” she said.