The California Independent System Operator serves about 80% of California's electricity demand, including the service areas of the state's three investor-owned utilities. It also operates the Western Energy Imbalance Market, an interstate real-time market covering territory that accounts for 80% of the load in the Western Interconnection.
The CREPC Transmission Collaborative is wrapping up work on a cost allocation study, while another transmission expansion coalition study is behind schedule, staff said during the Western Interstate Energy Board’s annual meeting.
California is setting records with battery energy storage operating on its grid every day, but in one Southern California beach county, residents have come out in large numbers to oppose a proposed 250-MW battery project because of safety and aesthetic concerns.
BPA CEO John Hairston’s keynote at the annual meeting of the WCPSC spotlighted a theme that would dominate discussion at the event: the looming prospect of overwhelming growth in electricity demand in the West and across the U.S.
Many stakeholders are now supporting CAISO’s proposed new method for allocating congestion revenues in EDAM after months of workshops and multiple proposals.
The study, conducted by Aurora Energy Research, found EDAM could provide the Denver-based utility $11.2 million more in average annual savings from 2028 to 2040 compared with Markets+, rising to $13.2 million through 2060.
The Bureau of Land Management has proposed changes to three of its Northern Nevada resource management plans to accommodate NV Energy’s 235-mile Greenlink North transmission project.
CAISO is moving forward with a key initiative to resolve how battery storage resources function on the grid as the battery boom continues in the Golden State.
Peak demand in the Western Interconnection hit a record high of 168.2 GW in 2024, reflecting “early effects” of the growth in large loads such as data centers, according to a new WECC report.
Stefan Andrej Shambora, CC BY-2.0, via Wikimedia Commons
The Western Transmission Expansion Coalition is on track to publish the first phase of its transmission planning study this summer despite some delays in finalizing the models that will underpin the study.
