BPA May Switch From Markets+ to CAISO's EDAM — SkimNews
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- BPA Administrator Travis Kavulla told the newly formed Regional Organization for Western Energy in a Sept. 3 letter that Bonneville may pivot from the Southwest Power Pool's Markets+ to CAISO's Extended Day-Ahead Market, with a draft decision expected by the end of the year.
- CAISO's EDAM offers roughly double the market depth of Markets+, averaging 39 GW of net generation versus 19 GW for Markets+ and 48 GW of demand versus 19 GW, according to EIA data Kavulla cited in his letter.
- BPA originally chose Markets+ in May 2025 despite EDAM offering greater financial benefits, citing market-design fit on governance, resource adequacy, greenhouse gas accounting, and congestion revenue — but Kavulla warned seams between markets could force Bonneville to pull transmission capacity from optimization.
- Kavulla outlined five governance conditions BPA needs from ROWE to back an EDAM switch, including an independent board, a stakeholder governance framework resolution by the end of November, and rules covering resource adequacy and how transmission rights holders get paid.
- Advanced Energy United backed the reconsideration, with senior director Brian Turner praising "important strides" on governance and the value of "an expansive market" for industry growth and reliability.
- BPA supplies about a third of the Northwest's electricity from 22.5 GW of federal hydroelectric capacity and operates roughly 15,000 circuit miles of high-voltage transmission across Idaho, Oregon, Washington, and parts of Montana, California, Nevada, Utah, and Wyoming.
Why it matters: BPA controls roughly a third of Northwest generation and 15,000 miles of high-voltage transmission, so its market affiliation reshapes which Western day-ahead pool has the scale to clear the most cost-effective power — and the West's two competing market platforms just learned the federal power marketer's allegiance is not locked in. Kavulla's November deadline for ROWE governance actions puts real pressure on the new organization to deliver or risk losing BPA to the rival market.
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