On February 24, 2017, the Balancing Authority of Northern California (“BANC”) – acting on behalf of its member, Sacramento Municipal Utility District – entered into an Implementation Agreement with the California Independent System Operator Corporation (“CAISO”) to participate in CAISO’s western Energy Imbalance Market (“EIM”). BANC had announced in October of 2016 that it would begin negotiations on behalf of its members to develop the Implementation Agreement. Going forward, participation in the EIM will require participating transmission service providers in the BANC balancing authority area to revise their open access transmission tariffs to reflect CAISO’s rules and procedures governing the EIM and to execute service agreements associated with the EIM.
According to the Implementation Agreement, BANC determined that participation in the EIM will benefit its members through improved dispatch and operation of generation facilities and efficient use and continued reliable operation of transmission facilities within its balancing authority area. In a related press release, CAISO stated that the EIM enables participating utilities to balance supply and demand within their respective service areas in real-time and to exchange resources across a large geographic area thus lowering the cost of delivering power to consumers. According to CAISO, the EIM has yielded nearly $142 million in savings since its launch in November 2014.
The CAISO press release is available here.