The Western Energy Imbalance Market (EIM) has grown from two Balancing Authority Areas (BAAs) in 2014—the California Independent System Operator
(CAISO) and PacifiCorp—to eleven participating BAAs in 2020, with nine more planning to join by 2022. CAISO and the EIM entities are working on developing an Extended Day Ahead Market (EDAM). EDAM would cover the day-ahead energy market, which accounts for the majority of the load in CAISO.
In this article published in the Energy Bar Association’s EBA Brief, the authors discuss the evolution of market-based rates in the Western EIM and what that evolution suggests for considering market-based rate issues in the Western EDAM.