WAPA Desert Southwest Region Agrees To Participate In CAISO’s Real-Time Energy Market

The California Independent System Operator (CAISO) on Sept. 15 signed an implementation agreement with the Western Area Power Administration Desert Southwest (WAPA DSW) region to participate in CAISO’s real-time energy market in 2023.

Operated by CAISO, the Western Energy Imbalance Market (EIM) footprint currently includes portions of Arizona, California, Idaho, Montana, Nevada, New Mexico, Oregon, Utah, Washington, and Wyoming, and extends to the border with Canada.

WAPA DSW sells federal hydroelectric power and provides transmission service to nearly 70 municipalities, cooperatives, Native American tribes, federal and state agencies, and irrigation districts. One of those cooperatives, the Arizona Electric Power Cooperative (AEPCO), is comprised of six electric distribution cooperatives and five public power entities that combined serve more than 420,000 residential, agriculture, business and industrial customers.

The agreement applies to WAPA’s DSW region and Western Area Lower Colorado Balancing Authority. The latter includes generation resources in the Boulder Canyon and Parker-Davis projects (PDP) and the transmission systems of the Central Arizona Project, PDP and the Pacific-Northwest-Pacific Southwest Intertie Project.

In addition to the AEPCO sub-Balancing Authority area, participating Balancing Authority entities include the Central Arizona Water Conservation District, Southwest Public Power Agency and other DSW customers in Arizona, southern California and southern Nevada.

By 2023, the Western EIM will have 22 entities representing 84%of the demand for electricity in the Western Electric Coordinating Council (WECC), a non-profit corporation that works to advance a reliable electric system in 14 Western states, Northern Baja Mexico, and two Canadian provinces.

WAPA annually markets and transmits more than 25,000 gigawatt-hours of renewable power from 57 federal hydroelectric powerplants owned and operated by the Bureau of Reclamation, U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and International Boundary and Water Commission in 15 western and central states. WAPA also owns, operates and maintains a more than 17,000 circuit-mile high-voltage transmission system in the West. It is part of the Department of Energy.