The Bonneville Power Administration tamped down expectations that it is all in on SPP’s Markets+, clarifying in a recent letter to lawmakers representing Oregon and Washington that it’s still weighing the pros and cons of joining a day-ahead market.

The Bonneville Power Administration continued to argue that SPP’s Markets+ is preferable to CAISO’s EDAM, stating in a letter to Seattle City Light that potential benefits of a single West-wide market footprint must be viewed with “significant skepticism."

The Bonneville Power Administration says following through on its $25 million funding commitment to the development of SPP's Markets+ is simply a matter of preserving choice.

BPA’s insistence on favoring joining SPP’s Markets+ over CAISO’s Extended Day Ahead Market is “alarming” and could lead to $221 million in economic advantages going up in smoke, Seattle City Light argued.

The Bonneville Power Administration will delay its decision on choosing between SPP’s Markets+ and CAISO’s Extended Day-Ahead Market until May 2025.

The stars may not yet have aligned for CAISO in the contest to bring an organized electricity market to the West, but key industry players appeared to be doing just that at an ISO event to celebrate the progress of its Extended Day-Ahead Market.

CAISO scored a potentially important victory when the Balancing Authority of Northern California said it will pursue membership in the ISO’s Extended Day-Ahead Market — and not SPP’s Markets+.