CAISO Board, WEIM Governing Body Adopt Market Rules Affecting California and the West

by Paul Ciampoli
APPA News Director
September 24, 2023

Several proposals related to rates and energy market rules that affect utilities in California and the West have been adopted by the California Independent System Operator Board of Governors and the Western Energy Imbalance Market Governing Body.

During a joint meeting, the two governing bodies that have shared governance authority over market rules that apply to WEIM participants approved:

• An amendment to the Rules of Conduct governing ISO market participants that stipulates sanctions for violations. The ISO’s Track 1 Rules of Conduct review resulted in limited change to eliminate disproportionate meter data penalties for small, long-term inaccuracies;
• The 2023 Cost of Service Study which set rates and fees for current ISO Balancing Area Authority participants while also establishing new rates for entities in the Extended Day-Ahead Market. The rates are based on the time and resources required to provide services offered by the ISO;
• An 18.73% inflation adjustment to the 2023 variable operations and maintenance default adder value to better reflect resources’ operational capabilities and maintenance costs in the day-ahead and real-time markets.

Following the joint meeting of the Board and WEIM Governing Body on Wednesday, the Board convened Sept. 21 where it approved initial EDAM Participation Rules, which will regulate how the ISO’s own balancing area would participate in the EDAM.

The Board also conditionally approved the extension of existing reliability must-run contracts for two energy resources in Oakland to help maintain local reliability conditions through 2024.

An RMR designation requires resources to be available during critical times for grid operations.