Utilities and lawmakers in the Northwest agree the Bonneville Power Administration’s next administrator must focus on building transmission and take risks to make that happen.

Seattle City Light presented its proposal for the Bonneville Power Administration’s overhaul of the transmission planning process, saying the agency should offer interim conditional firm service to most developers in the 61-GW transmission service queue.

Some of the Bonneville Power Administration’s proposals aimed at resuming transmission planning processes risk pushing study timelines to the point where the agency’s customers could run afoul of clean energy targets in Washington and Oregon, stakeholders say.

The Bonneville Power Administration outlined suggested modifications to its commercial business model as the agency explores updating transmission processes.

Future participants in CAISO’s EDAM have already held extensive talks about developing an alternative to the Western Power Pool’s WRAP for non-CAISO EDAM members, NV Energy confirmed in a filing with Nevada utility regulators.

A new Brattle Group study examined the impact on planning reserve margins of an alternative Western resource adequacy program that includes expected participants in CAISO’s Extended Day-Ahead Market.

California lawmakers have passed a landmark bill that will allow CAISO to transition the governance of its markets to the independent “regional organization” envisioned by the West-Wide Governance Pathways Initiative.

Utilities at a customer-led workshop voiced support for Bonneville Power Administration’s shift toward proactive transmission planning, though some expressed reservations about the agency’s proposed commercial readiness criteria.

Although one of the aims of day-ahead markets in the West is to fix a fragmented transmission landscape, some islanded entities will have a tough time navigating seams issues likely to arise as markets take shape, analysts at Aurora Energy Research said during a webinar.