The California Independent System Operator’s (ISO) Board of Governors has adopted the final suite of market and operational improvements intended to support grid reliability throughout the West.
The Board approved the Market Enhancements for Summer 2021 Readiness — Export, Load and Wheeling Priorities initiative, which will refine the prioritization of energy imports, exports and transfers through the ISO’s balancing authority area (BAA). The initiative, slated for implementation in July 2021, enhances the ISO’s ability to reliably manage intertie energy transactions during electricity shortages, such as those that occurred during the August 2020 heatwave that caused rotating power outages.
This initiative was the final near-term summer readiness initiative for the Board’s consideration and, if approved by the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC), will be effective till May 31, 2022. The ISO is scheduled to begin a regional stakeholder process on a long-term solution to wheeling priorities — energy transfers through the ISO’s BAA — in the coming months.
"The Board’s action today demonstrates their commitment to reliable and collaborative operations this summer," said President and CEO Elliot Mainzer. "The ISO remains unequivocally committed to working with our regional partners in constructive problem-solving as we work together across the West for a longer-term solution that will enable all parties to meet their reliability needs in an efficient, transparent and equitable fashion."
Because the initiative generally affects the real-time energy market, the Western EIM Governing Body had met earlier to consider the proposal under its advisory role to the Board of Governors and voted to advise the Board to take the necessary steps to start a regional stakeholder process and engage the FERC as necessary to proactively create a durable long-term regional solution to the issues relating to export, load and wheeling priorities.
Following last August’s heatwave, the ISO and its stakeholders embarked on an important mission to develop near-term market and operational solutions to augment grid resiliency in preparation for this summer. In March 2021, the Board of Governors and, the EIM Governing Body in part, adopted the bulk of the Market Enhancements for Summer 2021 Readiness to prepare for extreme heat waves that could affect California and the West this summer.
