Members of a key Western Resource Adequacy Program (WRAP) stakeholder group voted Jan. 23 to prioritize three topics of concern as the group continues developing the program aimed at addressing resource adequacy and reliability in the West. 

WRAP’s Program Review Committee (PRC) is “charged with receiving, considering and proposing design changes” to the RA program operated by the Western Power Pool (WPP). The PRC is developing a draft work plan to identify which changes it can develop into concrete proposals. 

During the meeting Jan. 23, the committee decided on three topics to prioritize for development this year, including load forecasting, adding language to clarify what qualifies as firm transmission under WRAP and enhancing the WRAP operations program to make it compatible with both SPP’s Markets+ and CAISO’s Extended Day-Ahead Market (EDAM). 

The prioritized topics have been on most members’ minds, and there appeared to be consensus on their importance, Rebecca Sexton, director of reliability programs at WPP, told RTO Insider. 

“There’s a lot still to do to come up with the final work plan,” Sexton said. “There’s a lot more opportunity for stakeholders to weigh in. But for now, seems like a lot of consensus on the order that they determined today.” 

The PRC hopes to have the work plan endorsed by the WPP Board of Directors by June, but there will be a “rigorous process of review” between now and then, Sexton said. 

“So there’s a lot of opportunity for the … approach to change,” Sexton added. “But I think having not done this before and getting lots of very engaged input, this seems like we’re on a path to create something that people will endorse in a couple of months.” 

The PRC meeting followed WPP board’s approval of revisions to WRAP’s transition plan in September, including by postponing the program’s “binding” phase by one year and reducing penalties for participants who come up short on RA obligations. (See WPP Board Approves WRAP Transition Plan Changes.) 

The changes were made after WRAP participants urged the board to postpone the start of the program’s penalty phase by one year, from summer 2026 to summer 2027, citing “significant headwinds” in securing energy resources in light of supply chain issues, forecasts for faster-than-expected load growth and increasing extreme weather events.  

Though the revisions to the transition plan are part of a separate process from those discussed by the PRC, Sexton said much of the work within WRAP task forces tends to overlap. 

“It’s the way in which we’ll hopefully continue to be responsive to stakeholder needs, whether participant or non-participant, and evolve the program with best practices as resource adequacy practices change,” Sexton said.