WEIM Governing Body has two positions to fill in 2024

Editor’s note: Nicole Hughes has served as Chair of the Western Energy Imbalance Market Nominating Committee for the past two years, where she represents the Public Interest and Consumer Advocates sector. Nicole is Executive Director of Renewable Northwest, a renewable energy advocacy organization committed to decarbonizing the Northwest region by accelerating the transition to renewable energy.

In 2024, the Western Energy Imbalance Market (WEIM) Nominating Committee will reconvene and lead the stakeholder effort to recommend candidates to fill two positions on the WEIM Governing Body that are set to expire at the end of June. This time around, there is the added consideration of candidates’ qualifications to meet the additional responsibilities associated with the California Independent System Operator's extended day-ahead market (EDAM). 

Since 2016, the WEIM Nominating Committee has played a critical role in engaging Western stakeholders from a broad spectrum of industry sectors in selecting and recommending candidates to fill seats on the five-person independent WEIM Governing Body. The WEIM has provided financial, reliability and environmental benefits to its members since its launch in late 2014, with nearly $5 billion in cumulative savings for participants so far. WEIM Governing Body members are charged with promoting, protecting and expanding the success of the WEIM for the benefit of all participants in the ISO’s real-time market.

The Nominating Committee presented its first slate of WEIM Governing Body candidates in 2016. This slate was approved by the ISO Board of Governors, with all future nominations to be decided by the WEIM Governing Body itself. 

In 2024, the Nominating Committee will again work to engage Western stakeholders in recommending a slate of two candidates for consideration by the Governing Body, seeking to fill seats currently held by Governing Body Vice Chair Robert Kondziolka and Member Rebecca Wagner, whose terms are set to expire June 30, 2024. The Nominating Committee can consider recommending that these members serve additional terms.

The Nominating Committee serves an essential role in providing stakeholders from across the region with an effective voice in the selection of WEIM Governing Body members and ensuring that members collectively – as the WEIM selection policy puts it – “reflect a diversity of perspectives that may result from different areas of expertise, geographic background, ethnicity, gender and professional backgrounds, and life experience.”

The Nominating Committee is comprised of six voting members and two non-voting members who represent the following sectors or groups:

• WEIM entities
• Public transmission owners
• Publicly-owned utilities
• Suppliers and marketers of generation and energy service providers
• Public interest/consumer advocate groups
• Body of State Regulators
• WEIM Governing Body (non-voting)
• ISO Board of Governors (non-voting)

Nominating Committee members represent their specific sectors and each sector may determine its own selection process. Whether the sectors are affirming existing representatives or selecting a new representative, the sectors should complete the selection process by no later than January 31, 2024, before the Nominating Committee process begins again. 

The Nominating Committee has continued to successfully identify and recommend a highly professional, skilled, and diverse group of candidates to serve on the WEIM Governing Body. Nominating Committee members are grateful for the robust stakeholder engagement that has served to inform our past efforts and we look forward to engaging with stakeholders once again during next year’s nomination process.