Energy officials in Idaho, Utah and Wyoming have called on the West-Wide Governance Pathways Initiative to ensure that states with members in the Regional Organization for Western Energy have full access to data and market information, saying failure to do so risks infringing on states’ rights and undermining public confidence.

The Idaho Governor’s Office of Energy and Mineral Resources, Utah Office of Energy Development and Wyoming Energy Authority submitted joint comments on the ROWE’s draft bylaws in a Feb. 10 letter to the Pathways Initiative. The letter first appeared on the Western Interstate Energy Board’s website Feb. 23.

The ROWE is the product of the Pathways Initiative’s multiyear effort to develop an independent governance structure for CAISO’s Western Energy Imbalance Market and Extended Day-Ahead Market.

In their comments, the states contended the ROWE’s bylaws must ensure members have access to data and market information “to assist states in better understanding how the existing and evolving market design would impact state energy policies and economic priorities.”

Being able to analyze market data, independent of CAISO, which will still operate the markets, is “critical” for states’ ability to assess how efficient the market is and whether it is working in favor of their constituents, the letter said.

The states noted that some data “may be commercially sensitive,” saying the bylaws should “explicitly allow state entities to enter into confidentiality agreements to responsibly access and analyze this critical information.”

“Additionally, to strengthen oversight and build state-level expertise, we strongly encourage the allowance of third-party consultants to assist states in monitoring and interpreting market activities, provided they, too, are bound by confidentiality agreements,” the states wrote. “This access is critical given the seemingly unilateral ability of the board to determine confidential information and how it is accessed.”

Ensuring fair data access would improve market engagement while also ensuring that decisions within ROWE “reflect the diversity of state interests and the shared goals of transparency and reliability across the Western Interconnection,” the states argued.

“The commitment to data transparency and access should be explicitly stated in the bylaws,” according to the letter.

One goal in establishing ROWE was to remove what some in the Western power sector see as a barrier to wider participation in CAISO-run markets by ensuring they are not governed primarily by officials and stakeholders in California. (See Pathways Co-chair Maps out ‘Enhanced’ Stakeholder Process for Western Markets and Pathways to Engage Broad Set of Stakeholders to Select Independent RO Board.)

Call for ‘Fully Independent’ Framework

ROWE has been touted as an independent organization, run by stakeholders from a variety of sectors with the goal of ensuring states still have power to control their own energy policies.

But to ensure independency and build trust among stakeholders, ROWE must build a framework for “data access, evaluation and reporting that is fully independent of the market operator, the internal market monitor and other market experts,” Idaho, Utah and Wyoming wrote in their letter to Pathways.

This, they argued, “would promote confidence that market decisions are fair, unbiased, don’t infringe on state energy policy and are aligned with the public interest.”

It will be “extremely difficult” for states to set their own energy policies without stronger commitments in the bylaws. Under the existing structure, the ROWE board would control much of its own procedures with limited oversight and no “mandatory engagement or procedural consequences,” according to the letter.

“Without strengthened provisions, there is a serious risk that market design and governance principles will infringe on state energy policy priorities, erode transparency and undermine public trust,” according to the letter. “All western states, including our three states, have unique and widely varying policy priorities and economic development goals that must be protected. We emphasize the importance of ensuring that state energy policies are on equal footing, are fully respected and equitably treated in the Western Market operated by … [CAISO].”

Kathleen Staks, ROWE’s interim president, said in an email to RTO Insider that the organization appreciates the comments. (See Pathways’ ROWE Selects Interim Leaders.)

“As we have done with all of the comments we’ve received through the Pathways Initiative process, we are evaluating how we can address those comments through the ROWE implementation work,” Staks added.