Bonneville Power Administration staff identified governance, resource adequacy requirements and greenhouse gas accounting and other favorable attributes in recommending that BPA participate in a day-ahead energy market and that BPA should join the Southwest Power Pool's Markets+ initiative, BPA reported on April 4.
Since summer 2023, the team making the recommendation has been working with customers and constituents and analyzing Western Interconnection day-ahead market options offered by the SPP and the California Independent System Operator. The team has also engaged in market development efforts with both SPP and the CAISO.
“I appreciate the coordination the team has done with BPA customers and interested parties across the Pacific Northwest," said BPA administrator/CEO John Hairston in a statement. “The solid analysis they have completed and work they will do between now and August, including continued public and customer engagement, make me confident I can make the right decision for BPA and the region."
BPA has scheduled three public workshops between May and August that will allow customer and constituent feedback on the recommendation.
Those workshops will allow for further day-ahead market analysis and additional opportunities for entities to provide comments and influence the Administrator's final decision.
BPA will release a draft record of decision in August for review by customers and interested parties with a final decision scheduled for November.
The staff recommendation references analysis performed by the Western Markets Exploratory Group study results as a key underpinning in its decision. That study shows positive economic benefits for BPA in most scenarios.
BPA intends to analyze several different scenarios as a follow-on to the WMEG study and will brief the public and invite comments on the additional quantitative results during the upcoming workshops in summer of 2024.
The full recommendation policy paper is available at https://www.bpa.gov/learn-and-participate/projects/day-ahead-market.
In related news, SPP on April 1 said that it has reached a significant milestone in the development of its western day-ahead electricity market by filing its Markets+ tariff with the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission.
