The parties structured the joint allocation agreement so that any loading service point in the PSCo BAA that commits to providing generation resources and whose transmission provider accepts the joint pay-as-you-go service can become a party to the joint allocation agreement, FERC noted. “Joining weiS will expand the benefits we have gained from the joint distribution agreement on behalf of our ownership communities,” Jason Frisbie, chief executive and CEO of the Platte River Power Authority, said in the statement. “Thanks to JDA, we have established excellent partnerships that currently offer our customers great added value. The transition to a market of energy imbalance brings Platte River closer to a carbon-free energy future. FERC accepted its commitment to PSCo to submit annual reports on the Joint Shipping Agreement for the first two years of operation. The Commission instructed the company to submit, within six months of the completion of each of the first two years of the joint secondment operations, a report summarising the costs and savings achieved by each of the participants, information on the transport route and cost comparisons of the last marginal energy unit under the Agreement and the year preceding the implementation of the Agreement. Xcel Energy-Colorado is currently working under a joint allocation agreement that will allow generation to be shared between the Platte River Power Authority, Black Hills Colorado Electric and Colorado Springs Utilities in their balancing authority area. SPP launched WEIS in February 2021. An energy imbalance market is a real-time market where electricity generation is provided by multiple electricity suppliers at the lowest possible cost to reliably meet the combined demand of customers in the region. In rejecting an earlier proposal that set a price for resources on the basis of system-wide marginal costs, FERC concluded that the joint shipping agreement would not result in fair and reasonable rates and that the safeguards were insufficient to mitigate the potential to exploit PSCo`s market power in the BAA concerned. The order followed an earlier rejection of the plan, a letter of inadequacy and a conference to bring the parties together to try to reach an agreement, with the decision taking a few years of work by PSCo, Black Hills Corp.
(NYSE: BKH) and Platte River Power Authority have peaked, FERC Commissioner Cheryl LaFleur said at the Commission`s Feb. 18 meeting. The Commission stated that its concerns about market power potential and the issue of PSCo`s access to customer load data and non-public transmission information had been addressed in the revisions to the agreement following a conference between the parties. PSCo said the purpose of the joint shipping agreement is to implement a more efficient mechanism for the supply of ancillary energy between the parties under the order. Each Party will continue to provide sufficient generation resources to meet its own native load needs and operating reserves, but it will also determine the amount or small it wishes to designate for joint shipping and system-wide marginal price compensation. That price is the additional cost of the next most economical megawatt of electricity that can be generated by a party`s dispatchable unit, FERC said. In addition, the parties agreed to create a web portal through which they enter information on the unit costs of their resources, thereby preventing each party`s merchant functional staff from accessing confidential shipping data subject to FERC`s Code of Conduct, the order says. PSCo has amended the agreement to ensure that its merchant functionality does not have access to certain customer billing data. On February 18, FERC agreed to the Public Service Company of Colorado`s (PSCo) joint dispatch transmission service and a joint allocation agreement to facilitate intra-island shipment of production resources to PSCo`s Balancing Authority Area (BAA). Xcel Energy-Colorado, Platte River Power Authority and Black Hills Colorado Electric plan to join the WEIS market in April 2023, SPP said in a statement.
The WEIS membership agreement always requires the approval of the appropriate regulatory processes. “The parties renegotiated the joint deployment agreement to address the Commission`s concerns that led to the rejection of the agreement last year,” FERC said. “The parties will be able to achieve significant cost savings by using their collective resources more efficiently,” FERC said. “These cost savings are passed on to their customers. “We are very active in evaluating and researching opportunities that will reduce energy costs and lead to expanded renewable energy options for our customers and communities,” Vance Crocker, vice president of Black Hills Colorado, said in the statement. “In addition to our ongoing work with our regional sourcing partners and joining WEIS, we continue to look for ways to benefit our customers.” Receive daily email notifications, subscriber notes, and personalize your experience. The companies plan to join the WEIS market in April 2023 The three Colorado utilities have considered participating in CAISO`s WEIM as well as SPP`s WEIS, SPP said. Xcel Energy took a step back from CAISO`s WEIM last year after one of its energy partners joined SPP`s WEIS. “As we look for opportunities for the future, this short-term decision addresses our energy needs to provide clean, reliable and affordable energy to customers right now,” Alice Jackson, president of Xcel Energy-Colorado, said in the statement.
“The energy imbalance market allows us to participate in an organized market while giving us the flexibility to explore a more sustainable solution that will help us integrate more wind and solar energy into our system.” WMEG participants will examine market structures that extend to energy imbalance markets and assess broader market designs for the Western region, including a multi-level approach to new market services to determine whether these designs can improve their ability to provide clean energy services, reliable and profitable to their customers. Federal and state regulators are discussing the potential benefits of a regional broadcaster in the West for maintaining reliability during the energy transition. SPP is just one of many companies vying to create a market in the West. Three Colorado utilities have announced plans to join Southwest Power Pool`s Western Energy Imbalance Services market and continue to explore long-term solutions to join or develop an organized wholesale market, SPP said Jan. 26. After further analysis, the group decided that the best intermediate option was to switch to weiS due to geographic diversity and existing connections, according to SPP. The utilities` participation in WEIS will replace JDA and is expected to provide customers with additional savings on production costs. SPP plans to expand to Western interconnection by 2024 The result “has the potential to bring significant benefits to a bilateral market region of the country,” LaFleur said. “Congratulations to everyone involved.” SPP plans to expand its regional transportation organization to Western Interconnection by 2024. PPS WEIS members intend to explore the Full Participation of the West in the RTO. PSCo, a subsidiary of Xcel Energy (NYSE: XEL), has a long-standing interest in participating in a broader energy market and operating in a regional market that FERC is partnering with in the order.
The California Independent System Operator also operates a market for energy imbalances in the West, and the grid operator recently launched a process to extend the EIM to the overnight market. .