{"id":24618,"date":"2025-02-24T13:33:07","date_gmt":"2025-02-24T18:33:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.edf.org\/climate411\/?p=24618"},"modified":"2025-12-02T15:17:04","modified_gmt":"2025-12-02T20:17:04","slug":"california-is-on-the-path-to-a-regional-electricity-market","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.edf.org\/climate411\/2025\/02\/24\/california-is-on-the-path-to-a-regional-electricity-market\/","title":{"rendered":"California is on the path to a regional electricity market"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><em>This is the first in a blog series on the opportunities presented by the Pathways Initiative, focused on California. Check back for additional publications in the series coming soon.<\/em><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">California has taken a critical first step towards creating a cheaper, cleaner and stronger grid through the creation of a <a href=\"https:\/\/library.edf.org\/AssetLink\/1757r7175w58t7j7e3c0lya131ikj2h5.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Western regional electricity market<\/a>. By working more with its neighbors, California can unlock new clean energy technologies across the West, including offshore wind, long duration energy storage and other clean options that can take a long time to build. This type of cooperation will be essential to keep costs low as California both cleans up its existing electric grid to cleaner options and triple its size to help decarbonize the rest of the economy.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><!--more--><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">California State Senator Josh Becker has introduced Senate Bill 540, which authorizes the state\u2019s electric providers and its grid manager to participate in a Western regional electricity market. That market would be governed by a new independent organization. The state would be permitted to join only if certain conditions are met, including the strongest consumer protections of any electricity market in the nation<\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">.<\/span><\/i> <i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u00a0<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Supported by EDF, along with a large cross section of groups including organized labor, large buyers of electricity, consumer advocates, technology providers, utilities, community choice aggregators (non-utility providers of electricity) and independent energy producers, this bill is something to be excited about. It puts California on a pathway to help catalyze the expansion of electricity markets across the West, providing a way for California to buy and sell electricity across state borders that lowers costs, spurs clean energy and helps to keep the lights on during extreme weather events.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">SB 540 was informed by the <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.westernenergyboard.org\/wwgpi\/\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Pathways Initiative<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> \u2014 a stakeholder process established by regulators from California and the other Western states to explore prospects for expanded electricity cooperation. EDF played a central role in this process, which has unfolded over the last year and a half. The shared commitment to collaboration and the diversity of the coalition supporting this legislation are unprecedented.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<h3><b>Benefits of a Western regional electricity market\u00a0<\/b><\/h3>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The basic premise here is simple:<\/span><b> coordinated electricity markets can help customers save money, keep the lights on and make the electric grid cleaner, faster.<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> How, you might ask? Well, there are three basic facts that you need to know.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<ol>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The electric grid must always be in balance. If the grid makes too much electricity, there could be a power surge that fries electronics. If the grid makes too little electricity, there could be a blackout. Both are highly disruptive and costly events.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The wind does not always blow and the sun does not always shine \u2014 so wind and solar energy can vary a lot. Sometimes there can be <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">too much <\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">or <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">too little<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> electricity from these sources. So California constantly adjusts its power production up and down to help keep the grid in balance.\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The West is a big place \u2014 big enough that the power demands in Denver are going to occur at a different time than in San Jose \u2014 even though both are roughly equivalent populations. It is big enough that an extreme weather event that impacts one state can be assisted by another.\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">This is where electricity markets come into play. The West can save money by not needing to build duplicative sources of power in each state. Rather, the West can build clean generating resources where it makes the most sense and then use the market to help optimize and share those resources where it is most needed. In addition, the market saves customers money by more efficiently trading when clean energy resources are producing surplus electricity and displacing duplicative production from existing resources.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The geographic size and resource diversity of the West can also help improve grid resiliency, for example, by increasing availability of resources from across the region to provide critical resources in the case of an extreme weather event, such as a major heat wave, when grid production would otherwise be limited. This was not theoretical \u2014 California directly benefited from electricity markets during the <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.caiso.com\/about\/news\/energy-matters-blog\/managing-the-july-2024-heat-wave-with-our-partners-in-california-and-the-west\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">summer 2024 heat wave<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Last but not least, electricity markets also help select the cleanest generation option to operate on the grid at any given time, because they efficiently help integrate variable renewable resources, like solar and wind, into the grid.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<h3><b>Existing electricity markets in the West<\/b><\/h3>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The current regional electricity market, known as the <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.westerneim.com\/pages\/default.aspx\"><b>Western Energy Imbalance Market<\/b><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> (WEIM), operates in real time, allowing participants to buy and sell electricity 15 minutes in advance. Not only has California been actively trading electricity with other states in the West for the last decade, its grid operator \u2014 the California Independent System Operator (CAISO) \u2014 has overseen the market. California has heavily invested in the hardware, software and people power to make this market a tremendous success.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Since its launch in 2014, the Western Energy Imbalance Market has yielded <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.westerneim.com\/Documents\/iso-western-energy-imbalance-market-benefits-report-q4-2024.pdf\"><b>over $6.62 billion in value<\/b><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> and displaced over 13,038 MT of greenhouse gas emissions \u2014 equivalent to taking over 3,000 gasoline-powered cars off the road for a year. It has been widely successful. CAISO is currently in the process of extending this real-time market into a day-ahead market (hence the name of the \u201c<\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.westerneim.com\/Pages\/ExtendedDayAheadMarket.aspx\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">extended day ahead market<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u201d or EDAM) starting in 2026, so that electricity can be bought and sold 24 hours <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">before<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> it\u2019s needed.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Extending electricity markets into a day-ahead time frame will give advanced warning to the slowest (and dirtiest) power plants that they will not be needed, further saving customers money and reducing climate pollution and local air emissions. A <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.brattle.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/Preliminary-Day-Ahead-Market-Impacts-Study-Impact-of-Market-Footprints-on-California-Customers.pdf\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">recent analysis by the Brattle Group<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> indicates California could <\/span><b>save nearly $800 million each year<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> and further <\/span><b>reduce climate pollution from fossil power plants by 31%<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">. In addition, a <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/woodsinstitute.stanford.edu\/system\/files\/publications\/Woods_Grid_Regionalization_White_Paper_v05_WEB.pdf\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">recent study by Stanford University<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> indicates that there are significant grid reliability benefits to regional cooperation, especially during extreme heat events.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">One way in which regional electricity markets make clean power more available is by more efficiently utilizing existing clean energy sources and reducing curtailment, or the deliberate reduction in clean electricity generation below what could be produced. Curtailment of renewable electricity is a growing problem, <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.eia.gov\/todayinenergy\/detail.php?id=60822\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">especially for solar and wind power generators in California<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">. This curtailment wastes precious clean electricity, but this can be avoided through expanded use of markets, which by expanding geographic and temporal diversity of both clean electricity generators <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">and <\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">load can improve integration of clean electricity into California\u2019s electricity supply, providing a more solid financial foundation for a cleaner electric grid.<\/span><\/p>\n<h3><b>The need for a regional solution\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/b><\/h3>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Both existing markets \u2014 WEIM and EDAM \u2014 are great for helping optimize the dispatch and operations of <\/span><i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">existing<\/span><\/i><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> power production facilities. However, <\/span><b>neither market was designed to help finance and build <\/b><b><i>new<\/i><\/b><b> clean power resources.\u00a0<\/b><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">This is where SB 540, introduced last week, comes into play. SB 540 enables California to leverage the use of electricity markets as it plans on this longer time horizon. It lets the state\u2019s electricity providers participate in a market that is designed to help build new clean resources that will yield lower costs for their customers. The market rules recognize each state\u2019s clean energy goals, and their individual mandates, ensuring that the market will spur more clean energy. The bill authorizes CAISO to engage in a regional electricity market, if a series of robust market protections are established. Amongst those protection is ensuring that California can still set and meet its own clean electricity goals.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">It is important to note that California still maintains full control of its electric grid, its operations, how it dispatches clean resources and keeps the grid in balance \u2014 just as all participants in the market outside of California would. The new market becomes a tool for California and other states to help buy, sell and share new clean resources across geographies.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<h3><b>SB 540 is the next step on the path to a cleaner electric grid\u00a0<\/b><\/h3>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">By capturing the benefits of a larger electricity market, the fastest and cheapest options will be available for California to transition to a clean energy future. EDF\u2019s <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.edf.org\/sites\/default\/files\/documents\/SB100%20clean%20firm%20power%20report%20plus%20SI.pdf\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">prior work<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> indicates that this transition will be harder and more expensive for California without regional cooperation.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">While California has pioneered commitments to climate and clean energy action, the <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/energyinnovation.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/06\/Offshore-Wind-A-Crucial-Resource-To-Decarbonize-The-Western-United-States.pdf\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">vast majority of the West<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> \u2014 80% of electricity customers \u2014 is served by a utility sharing our commitment to a clean energy future.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Regional cooperation is an essential ingredient to creating a cleaner Western electric grid. By placing California on the path to a regional electricity market, SB 540 will help keep electric bills affordable, speed up pollution cuts from the dirtiest power plants and provide the West with more predictable access to clean energy resources, all while making the grid more reliable. Simply put \u2014 it is the right choice for California. It is time to take the next step on the path to a regional electricity market. <\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>This is the first in a blog series on the opportunities presented by the Pathways Initiative, focused on California. Check back for additional publications in the series coming soon. California has taken a critical first step towards creating a cheaper, cleaner and stronger grid through the creation of a Western regional electricity market. By working &#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":130485,"featured_media":24619,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[200,107925,43,116,202,20,44],"tags":[],"coauthors":[108111],"class_list":["post-24618","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-california","category-cities-and-states","category-economics","category-energy-technologies","category-greenhouse-gas-emissions","category-news","category-policy"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.1.1 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>California is on the path to a regional electricity market - Climate 411<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/blogs.edf.org\/climate411\/2025\/02\/24\/california-is-on-the-path-to-a-regional-electricity-market\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"California is on the path to a regional electricity market - Climate 411\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"This is the first in a blog series on the opportunities presented by the Pathways Initiative, focused on California. 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Check back for additional publications in the series coming soon. California has taken a critical first step towards creating a cheaper, cleaner and stronger grid through the creation of a Western regional electricity market. 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