Sixteen entities have committed to participating in the Western Resource Adequacy Program’s first financially “binding” season covering winter 2027/28, the Western Power Pool said.
The development of SPP's Markets+ has picked up the pace with stakeholders agreeing on an interim governance structure and representation on the working groups that will handle much of the effort ahead.
FERC’s approval of SPP’s Markets+ funding agreement and its recovery mechanism came as backers of the Western centralized day-ahead market were meeting with the snow-capped Rockies as a backdrop.
BPA will be on the hook for nearly $27 million in funding for the next phase of SPP’s Markets+ — and potentially more depending on the market’s final footprint, according to a document SPP filed with FERC.
The RTO said it has received signed Phase 2 funding agreements from eight interested participants in its proposed day-ahead service offering — including the Bonneville Power Administration.
CAISO will be inherently compromised in its role as an operator of a deeper Western market because of its conflicting responsibilities as BA within that market, a group of entities that support SPP’s Markets+ argue in their latest “issue alert.”
Markets+ proponents argue that the SPP framework allows more flexibility for integrating greenhouse gas emission reduction programs across various states than CAISO’s EDAM.
Proponents of SPP’s Markets+ contend in their latest “issue alert” that the framework provides a much more equitable solution to tackling market seams than under CAISO’s EDAM.
Collaboration among stakeholders will be crucial to maintaining Western grid reliability in the face of increasing demand posed by large loads such as new data centers, speakers said during a webinar hosted by WECC.
