With go-live dates for its first two participants looming in May and October of next year, implementation activities for CAISO’s Extended Day-Ahead Market are ramping up.
Representatives of PacifiCorp, Portland General Electric and CAISO gave updates on EDAM preparations during a Feb. 12 joint meeting of the CAISO Board of Governors and the Western Energy Markets (WEM) Governing Body.
For PacifiCorp, which has an EDAM go-live date of May 1, 2026, much of the recent focus has been on its Open Access Transmission Tariff filing with FERC.
The company initially filed the tariff in November but decided to withdraw it and submit a new filing Jan. 16.
The new OATT incorporates a different methodology for congestion revenue allocation — a subject that gave stakeholders “some serious concerns,” according to Robert Eckenrod, PacifiCorp assistant general counsel.
For example, Western Power Trading Forum questioned the tariff’s measured-demand approach to allocation and planned to file a FERC protest in January, a representative said in December. (See CAISO Leaders Look Ahead to 2025 with Confidence.)
PacifiCorp was able to work around some limits of the methodology from the initial filing, Eckenrod said, and the new methodology is “more granular and more advantageous.”
Other than the changes to congestion revenue allocation methodology, the OATT filing is the same as the initial filing. It requested a Feb. 18 due date for comments and a May 16, 2025, decision date.
PGE Activity
Portland General Electric, which has an EDAM go-live date of Oct. 1, 2026, is planning to file its OATT with FERC by the end of March, said Tiffany Emerson, PGE’s senior manager of strategy and planning. PGE is working with PacifiCorp to align their tariffs, she said.
As a participant in CAISO’s Western Energy Imbalance Market (WEIM), PGE plans to enhance existing systems and frameworks rather than starting from scratch, Emerson said. Testing of system enhancements will begin in December and continue into 2026.
Another focus for PGE is settlements.
“The sheer volume of the transactions that we’re going to settle with … CAISO in the post-go-live EDAM world is just an order of magnitude greater than what we currently do as an EIM participant,” Emerson said.
WEM Governing Body member Andrew Campbell said he was encouraged to hear that PGE was working with PacifiCorp on EDAM implementation.
“That’s certainly key to success in this process,” Campbell said. “The entities as they join are helping the ones who are joining after them.”
In addition to PacifiCorp and PGE, the Balancing Authority of Northern California signed an EDAM implementation agreement with CAISO in November; the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power formally committed to joining in December. (See BANC Signs Agreement to Join EDAM; LADWP Gets Board’s OK to Join CAISO’s EDAM.)
BANC and LADWP are scheduled to go live with EDAM on May 1, 2027.
CAISO has been conducting EDAM training with PacifiCorp and EDAM and also has publicly posted training material on the WEM website. Computer-based training for EDAM entities is planned for April, according to Heather Kelley, executive director of CAISO’s project management office.
CAISO plans to begin integration testing with PacifiCorp this summer.
“We will be revving up our systems, and they’re going to be connecting to them, and we’ll start to get the market running,” Kelley said.
Customer Outreach
Kerstin Rock, managing director of Western market policy and analytics at PacifiCorp, noted that some deadlines for EDAM participation are now merely weeks away. For example, the company plans to complete connectivity testing by June 1.
PacifiCorp also is launching an engagement process for its transmission customers, with a series of workshops starting Feb. 27. Videos of the workshops will be posted on the company’s Open Access Same-time Information System (OASIS).
CAISO Board of Governors Chair Severin Borenstein thanked PacifiCorp for doing the work that will “smooth the pathway” for other EDAM participants.
“It’s all becoming real,” Borenstein said.