Dive Brief:
- The Nevada Public Utilities Commission on Friday approved a plan by NV Energy’s utilities — Nevada Power and Sierra Pacific Power — to join the Extended Day-Ahead Market, or EDAM, being set up by the California Independent System Operator.
- NV Energy’s plan to join EDAM in the fall of 2028 will allow the Las Vegas-based utility company to benefit from a broad, well-connected and diverse footprint while helping distributed energy resources participate in the wholesale market, the PUC said.
- The PUC also cited CAISO’s evolving governance structure and the grid operator's “ability to respond expeditiously to events with targeted, expedited stakeholder processes.”
Dive Insight:
Two day-ahead markets are emerging in the West: EDAM and the Southwest Power Pool’s Markets+.
EDAM is launching May 1 with PacifiCorp and Portland General Electric. The Los Angeles Department of Water and Power, the Balancing Authority of Northern California, the Turlock Irrigation District and Public Service Co. of New Mexico are set to join next year, and Idaho Power is leaning towards joining the market.
NV Energy will be a key participant in the EDAM market. The company’s utilities own about 6.6 GW and are supplied with about 3.7 GW of renewable energy, mainly solar, through power purchase agreements, according to Berkshire Hathaway Energy’s March 2 annual report. The utilities have an additional 1.4 GW of renewable PPAs with resources that aren’t online yet, according to the filing from Berkshire, which owns NV Energy and PacifiCorp.
NV Energy also owns key transmission assets connecting it to neighboring states. Further, it is developing the $4.2 billion Greenlink project in Nevada, set to be fully operating by 2029, while the TransWest Express transmission project is set to deliver 3 GW of wind from Wyoming into CAISO via the Eldorado substation near Las Vegas.
“The commission finds that EDAM offers a diverse, geographically expansive portfolio of energy resources in the Western Interconnection, providing a foundation for operational efficiency and policy objectives,” the PUC said in its decision.
NV Energy expects that joining EDAM will save $93.1 million a year, mainly due to lower production costs, increased market sales revenues and higher short-term wheeling revenues, the PUC noted. In a study conducted for the company, the Brattle Group estimated that joining SPP's Markets+ would produce costs totaling about $7.3 million annually.
Joining EDAM will make it easier to comply with the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission’s Order 2222, which aims to open wholesale markets to DERs. The PUC said it will hold a workshop on DER and demand-side response participation in CAISO markets.
Google supported NV Energy’s plan to join EDAM, partly because it would provide the company with direct access to a diverse resource mix.
“This includes low-cost solar from California and significant wind resources from the Pacific Northwest and Idaho,” the technology company said in testimony at the PUC. Those resources peak at different times from NV Energy’s solar production, allowing the company to import energy when it is most cost-effective and export surplus power when its resources are peaking, Google said.
Also, joining EDAM will support more efficient operations with neighboring participants, according to Google.
“Aligning with its most direct neighbors through EDAM helps ensure that external transfers are not limited to emergency conditions, but are arranged as part of a daily, optimized process that improves overall service reliability within the state,” Google said.
NV Energy’s plan will strengthen the Western grid, according to Advanced Energy United.
“As a critical hub connecting the Northwest, Southwest, and Interior West, the state’s participation in EDAM will allow power to be seamlessly shared across these regions, again boosting reliability, lowering costs, and making the most out of the West’s naturally abundant resources," Brian Turner, a senior director with the trade group, said in a statement.
