CAISO, SPP and the Western Power Pool are all maneuvering to organize the Western electricity sector, and conditions finally seem ripe for change.

In a move that signifies its expanding reach across the Western Interconnection, the Northwest Power Pool has rebranded itself as the Western Power Pool.

The Northwest Power Pool’s Western Resource Adequacy Program is forming stakeholder committees to nominate directors and shape program design.

SPP's new five-year strategic plan includes increasing its footprint in the Western Interconnection.

NWPP took its first steps implementing its Western Resource Adequacy Program, allowing participants to submit resource data for a “nonbinding” phase.

FERC commissioners told an audience of Western stakeholders and regulators that they back the formation of a Western RTO; California can't go it alone.

Increased discussion of a Western RTO is being driven by clean-energy mandates and state laws requiring transmission owners to join an organized market.