By Robert Mullin

CAISO’s Board of Governors on Tuesday appointed five members to serve on the newly established governing body of the western Energy Imbalance Market.

Candidates were selected after being vetted by a nominating committee representing five industry sectors, including EIM entities, ISO participating transmission owners, power suppliers and marketers, publicly owned utilities and state regulators.

“It was a consensus-driven process,” said CAISO board member Angelina Galiteva, a nonvoting committee member. “It was a successful outcome and can serve as a basis for a larger expansion” of the ISO itself.

PacifiCorp Transmission Vice President and General Counsel Sarah Edmonds, who headed the committee, said the new governing body demonstrated the “diversity of expertise” and independence necessary to oversee the EIM. She also noted its regional diversity.

“In terms of geography, we have the Pacific Northwest, California [and] the desert Southwest” represented on the body, Edmonds said.

The members of the EIM’s new governing body are:

• Valerie Fong — Recently retired after serving as the director of utilities for Palo Alto, Calif., from 2006 to 2015. Fong previously had a 20-year career at Pacific Gas and Electric and served on the boards of the Power Association of Northern California, Transmission Agency of Northern California, and the Northern California Power Agency.
• Doug Howe — A Ph.D. in mathematics who has authored or co-authored more than 30 papers and presentations covering industry subjects such as energy efficiency in the European Union and utility regulation in the U.K. Howe previously served as a New Mexico state regulator and executive with GPU Inc., which was acquired by FirstEnergy in 2001.
• Carl Linvill — Principal at the Vermont-based Regulatory Assistance Project, which produces white papers on energy and environmental issues. Linvill previously served as a utilities commissioner in Nevada and still acts as technical adviser for the Western Interstate Energy Board.
• John Prescott — Retired earlier this year after 10 years as CEO of the Portland-based Pacific Northwest Generating Cooperative, a member-owned policy advocate for utility cooperatives in seven Western states. Prescott previously worked at Idaho Power and Seattle City Light and served on the Pacific Northwest Utility Conference Committee and the National Rural Electric Cooperative Association’s Regulatory Standing Committee.
• Kristine Schmidt – President of Dallas-based Swan Consulting, which provides advisory services to businesses entering or expanding in the electricity and natural gas sectors. Schmidt was previously a vice president at ITC Holdings and director at Xcel Energy. She also worked as a commissioner adviser at FERC.

Members are appointed for three-year terms, but because this was the first governing body, the ISO board established staggered terms by randomly selecting names. Fong and Prescott will serve until June 30, 2019, Howe and Linvill until June 30, 2018, and Schmidt until June 30, 2017. In the future, all nominations will be subject to approval by the governing body.