The California Energy Commission will hold a workshop Jan. 24 to discuss the West-Wide Governance Pathways Initiative, signaling that the state is gearing up to consider a proposal to alter CAISO’s governance structure to accommodate broader Western concerns about the ISO’s lack of independence from California politics.
The meeting will be the first Pathways-related public event since the group’s Launch Committee voted in November 2024 to approve the “Step 2” proposal to create a new “regional organization” (RO) to provide independent oversight for CAISO’s Western Energy Imbalance Market (WEIM) and Extended Day-Ahead Market (EDAM). (See Pathways Initiative Approves ‘Step 2’ Plan, Wins $1M in Federal Funding.)
It also comes three weeks after the start of the 2025 California legislative session, which will see the state’s key Pathways’ backers — likely to include labor and public power utility representatives — submit a bill to implement the Step 2 plan. Feb. 22 is the deadline for submitting legislation.
“The goal in holding this workshop is to build a factual record capturing how current stakeholder groups and interested members of the public view regional electric grid cooperation through the Pathways Initiative,” the CEC said in its Jan. 14 meeting notice. “Additionally, the CEC hopes to foster a public dialogue around the benefits to Californians from Step 2 of the Pathways Initiative.”
The workshop will include representatives from “key stakeholder groups including regulators, market participants, labor and environmental advocates” and feature discussion about the “potential economic and reliability impacts” of Pathways, according to the notice. The commission won’t take any votes on the matter, and the public is invited to make comments.
“The current integration landscape before Western electricity system leaders looks quite different than just a few years ago,” the CEC said. “The carbon reduction goals, policy directives and economics driving the transition to clean energy systems continue to reshape the Western resource mix, prospective regional markets and the transmission planning needed to support these changes.”
Pathways “is an ongoing topic of interest that pertains to evolving regional energy markets,” it noted.
The CEC is holding the workshop as part of its 2024 Integrated Energy Policy Report Update proceeding, overseen by Chair David Hochschild and Co-Chair Siva Gunda. Industry stakeholders and members of the public can participate in person at the California Natural Resources Agency’s headquarters in Sacramento or call in online or by telephone (see notice for details).
Pathways Updates
The Pathways Initiative is embarking on key transitions this year after the group’s Launch Committee concluded its key task in 2024 with the approval of the Step 2 proposal. Those include appointment of the RO’s seven-member board and the start of work by the newly established Formation Committee charged with guiding the development of the new entity.
The new committee will include familiar faces from the older one, including Kathleen Staks of Western Freedom as chair, Evie Kahl of CalCCA, Jim Shetler of the Balancing Authority of Northern California, Scott Ranzal of Pacific Gas and Electric, Alaine Ginnochio of the Western Interstate Energy Board, Lisa Tormoen Hickey of Interwest Energy Alliance and Michele Beck of the Utah Office of Consumer Services.
Three members of the Western Energy Markets Body of State Regulators will also participate: Darcie Houck of the California Public Utilities Commission, Milt Doumit of the Washington Utilities and Transportation Commission and John Hammond of the Idaho Public Utilities Commission.
“So far, the Formation Committee has been working on mostly logistical items — meeting cadence for us, the [Launch Committee], and public stakeholder meetings, as well as a work plan that we will ultimately share with the public that will have more information about public engagement opportunities over the course of the next year,” Staks told RTO Insider in an email.
Staks clarified once again that neither committee will be engaging with the California legislature as formal entities.
“Those who engage in legislative efforts are doing so in their individual or organizational capacity, not on behalf of the [Launch Committee],” she said.
