Nearly a dozen utilities have committed to joining the “binding” iteration of the Western Resource Adequacy Program (WRAP), with more expected to sign on later this month, the program’s operator said last week.

The commitments by 11 participants, most of which are located in the Northwest, signal a show of confidence in the program, which was conceived to ensure that the Western Interconnection has sufficient capacity on hand to meet growing loads in both summer and winter. Concerns about resource adequacy have dogged the West as state greenhouse gas-reduction policies force early retirement of fossil fuel generation alongside an increasing reliance on variable renewable generation.

Administered by the Western Power Pool (WPP), the WRAP is currently operating in a “nonbinding” fashion in which participants are not penalized for falling short of their reserve requirements. Contingent on FERC’s approval of its tariff, the program in 2024 will enter a binding phase that will levy penalties for shortfalls.

“The critical next steps for the WRAP are securing the needed commitments from our participants and FERC approval of the tariff,” WPP CEO Sarah Edmonds said in a release Thursday. “The commitment of these 11 organizations puts us well on our way to accomplishing one of those steps. Addressing resource adequacy must be a regionwide collaboration, and we commend these first partners for their leadership and thank them for setting the tone for what’s to come.”

The utilities and power providers making commitments include Avista Utilities (NYSE:AVA), Calpine Energy Solutions, Chelan County Public Utility District, Clatskanie People’s Utility District, Eugene Water & Electric Board, PacifiCorp (NYSE:BRK.A), Portland General Electric (PGE), Powerex, Puget Sound Energy, Seattle City Light and Tacoma Power.

The 11 are among the 26 entities currently participating in the WRAP’s nonbinding phase, which also includes utilities from Northern California and the Southwest.

In a release PacifiCorp issued Thursday announcing its intention to join both the proposed extended day-ahead market (EDAM) of CAISO’s Western Energy Imbalance Market (WEIM) and the WRAP, the utility said it has “worked extensively” with the WPP and other prospective participants in developing the WRAP, “which is expected to provide regionwide reliability benefits to it participants by pairing regional diversity with common resource adequacy standards.”

“EDAM, WEIM and WRAP will work together to ensure the benefits and certainty needed to meet our customers’ growing demands for a reliable and clean grid,” said Stefan Bird, CEO of Pacific Power, a PacifiCorp subsidiary. “We are extremely excited to work with our partners to move the region forward into greater collaboration and secure even more benefits for customers.”

“Maintaining reliability is critical as we move forward with advancing decarbonization, and the WRAP would allow us to do this in a way that is most beneficial to our customers and manage costs,” PGE CEO Maria Pope said in a statement. “The WRAP will allow us to pool resources and share in the diversity of the region.”

The WPP filed its proposed WRAP tariff with FERC in August, hoping to win approval from the commission by the end of the year. Last month, FERC issued WPP a deficiency letter asking for more information about the program, including details about participation by members without market-based rate authority and WPP’s intention to hire an “independent evaluator to provide an independent assessment of WRAP’s performance.” (See FERC IDs Deficiencies in Western RA Program.)

Edmonds said at the time that the WPP knew such a development was possible and that she was confident the WRAP proposal will “ultimately gain approval.”