The West-Wide Governance Pathways Initiative will run its stakeholder processes separately from CAISO’s until the effort's regional organization is formally launched in 2028, even in areas of overlapping interest.
The formation of two competing day-ahead markets will create seams across the West, but at least one utility representative is more worried about seams resulting from the fracture of CAISO’s real-time Western Energy Imbalance Market.
Tri-State asked the Colorado Public Utilities Commission to find it would be in the public interest for the power supplier to join SPP, saying integrating with the RTO would bring significant benefits.
Outgoing FERC Chair Mark Christie and former Colorado Gov. Bill Ritter both emphasized that the West controls the future of the Western interconnection, not Washington.
The West-Wide Governance Pathways Initiative’s Launch Committee estimates it will cost about $7.1 million to launch the independent regional organization that eventually will oversee energy markets in the West.
Though BPA removed any uncertainty by selecting SPP’s Markets+ over CAISO’s EDAM, the debate over whether BPA made the right choice likely will heat up as the West confronts a split into two major markets.
Puget Sound Energy said it is joining Markets+, marking another win for SPP shortly after the Bonneville Power Administration issued its final market policy in favor of the day-ahead market.
New amendments to the proposed Pathways bill would include protections against possible attempts by President Donald Trump to influence California energy markets, such as pushing the state to buy coal-fired generation.
