BPA May Drop Markets+ for CAISO's EDAM — SkimNews
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- Bonneville Power Administration may abandon its May 2025 decision to join SPP's Markets+ in favor of CAISO's Extended Day-Ahead Market, per a Sept. 3 letter from Administrator Travis Kavulla, with a draft decision expected by year's end.
- Kavulla framed the evaluation around three principles: durability of market rules, depth and liquidity of the market, and how seams between markets affect reliability and economic efficiency.
- EDAM offers a roughly double-sized footprint — 39 GW of average net generation and 48 GW of average demand, versus 19 GW each for Markets+, according to EIA data cited in the letter.
- The Regional Organization for Western Energy (ROWE) must deliver on governance criteria including independent board leadership, stakeholder-driven rulemaking, and protection against unilateral state action; Kavulla asked ROWE to issue a stakeholder governance resolution by end of November.
- Joining Markets+ would force BPA to withdraw some transmission capacity from market optimization, creating seams "antithetical" to efficient infrastructure use, Kavulla wrote.
- Advanced Energy United welcomed the reconsideration, with senior director Brian Turner citing governance strides and the importance of choosing an "expansive market" that supports reliability and lower customer costs.
- BPA supplies about one-third of Northwest electric power, mainly from 22.5 GW of federal hydroelectric resources, and operates roughly 15,000 circuit miles of high-voltage transmission across eight states.
Why it matters: BPA's 22.5 GW of federal hydro and 15,000 circuit miles of transmission make it the largest single counterparty any Western market can recruit; a switch to EDAM would shift BPA into a market roughly twice the size of Markets+ and force ROWE to deliver governance reforms by November or watch BPA walk back its four-month-old decision.
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