The Pathways Launch Committee has been busy this October, hosting a stakeholder meeting to recap the Step 2 Draft Proposal and a workshop to discuss revisions to the sectors included in the draft stakeholder process proposal. As a reminder, Step 2 proposes establishing a new, independent RO to oversee Western energy markets. The RO will provide fully independent governance for CAISO's existing real-time energy market and soon-to-be-launched day-ahead energy market, while CAISO will remain the market operator. The RO will also be structured to allow for adding more market services in the future.

 

After the sector workshop, the Launch Committee released a revised RO sector proposal. The revised proposal will expand the size of the core stakeholder representatives committee and boost representation for some groups, including public power entities and investor-owned utilities to ensure that those sectors have geographically diverse representation across the West.  

 

More recently, members of the Launch Committee participated in a panel discussion at the fall joint meeting of the Committee on Regional Electric Power Cooperation and the Western Interconnection Regional Advisory Body (CREPC-WIRAB). The panel focused on the Committee's progress over the past year, updates on Step 2, and the next steps for the Pathways Initiative, including legislation that will provide CAISO the flexibility to operate and participate in markets overseen by an independent RO. 

 

This week, there was also a Pathways discussion at the CAISO Stakeholder Symposium, where the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers (IBEW) 

announced plans to sponsor the upcoming California legislation. The discussion also highlighted the importance of strong support from a wide range of stakeholders heading into the legislative session. 

 

This month, more utilities made plans to join the Extended Day-Ahead Market (EDAM), and new studies show that EDAM continues to be the most viable option for day-ahead market operations in the West.  

In a recent white paper for PacifiCorp, the Brattle Group analyzes the differences between EDAM and Markets+. The study shows that the projected benefits to PacifiCorp from participating in EDAM have nearly doubled. The findings also show that other entities committed to EDAM will experience increased benefits as the market continues to grow. The study authors state that "the minor differences between the market designs for EDAM and Markets+ are unlikely to materially change customer savings from market participation...[which] are driven by the transmission connectivity between market members and the diversity of load and generation resources across the market footprint."

 

In response, SPP and Powerex said these results were a 'trick' rather than a 'treat,' claiming that the study contains “several material misstatements of facts” and overlooks evidence “directly contrary to its conclusions." Powerex also argued that the study inadequately addressed the benefits of fast-start pricing (FSP) in Markets+ and left out that CAISO is the only market without FSP. 

A group of Northwest-based EDAM proponents commissioned a report from the Brattle Group to compare day-ahead market options for the region. Among other results, the report found that the Bonneville Power Administration would earn $65 million in net benefits from joining EDAM but would face $83 million in increased costs if it joined Markets+. 

Yesterday, the Western Area Power Administration (WAPA) announced that its Sierra Nevada region will pursue final negotiations toward full participation in CAISO's EDAM.

This month, Arizona G&T Cooperatives announced that a group of Southwest electric cooperatives and public power utilities will be conducting a study of potential benefits if the WAPA Desert Southwest region joins EDAM. This comes a few weeks after Arizona investor-owned utilities APS, TEP, and UNS Electric were instructed to report on the benefits of joining a day-ahead market in future integrated resource plan filings.