The California Independent System Operator (ISO) Board of Governors unanimously approved governance documents changes today to reflect a new shared-authority framework for the Western Energy Imbalance Market (EIM).
The Board’s action concludes a stakeholder process that began with the Western EIM Governance Review Committee in 2019. The new governance framework, which the Board and Western EIM Governing Body approved last month, is now effective. The framework gives the Board and Western EIM Governing Body shared approval authority over a wider range of issues applicable to the Western EIM, including tariff proposals made to the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission.
The changes also ensure the continuation of an advisory role for the EIM Governing Body, which will now extend to all real-time market rules not under joint authority. A dispute resolution process is also included in the shared-governance changes to be used if the two entities disagree on a proposed tariff change.
Additionally, the ISO will initiate a public stakeholder process to consider a governance recommendation made by the EIM Governing Body at its Sept. 8 meeting regarding how Board advisory committees are established to consider joint authority and/or Western EIM governance matters.
The ISO announced it would begin the stakeholder process with the goal of bringing the matter to the Board for consideration in November 2021.
In other action, the Board of Governors unanimously approved the extension of several reliability must run (RMR) contracts to help maintain reliable system-wide grid conditions through 2022. An RMR designation requires the resource to be available during critical times for grid operations.
Extension of the RMR contracts applies to Dynegy Oakland, Starwood Energy Group, CSU Channel Islands Site Authority, Midway Sunset Cogeneration Company, and KES Kingsburg resources
