Western Energy Imbalance Market Governing Body adopts new name to reflect evolving role
WEIM Governing Body Chair Robert Kondziolka was first appointed to the WEIM Governing Body in February 2020. Rob was reappointed to two consecutive terms in 2021 and 2024 and selected several times by his colleagues to serve as Chair and Vice Chair. Before he joined the WEIM Governing Body, Rob spent more than 40 years in the electric industry, holding leadership roles with utilities in the Southwest, including Salt River Project and Tucson Electric Power Company.
Since its creation, the role and responsibilities of the Western Energy Imbalance Market (WEIM) Governing Body have continued to expand and evolve. In consideration of these developments, the Governing Body, in partnership with the ISO Board of Governors, has chosen a new name to better reflect our role and the continuing development of a fully integrated Western electricity market. But first, a little background.
The concept of the Governing Body began with a committee developed by the ISO and comprised of stakeholders from across the West. Known as the WEIM Transitional Committee, its members worked through a public process to develop a long-term governance structure that included a proposed independent five-member Governing Body with delegated authority over proposed market rules applying uniquely or differently to WEIM balancing authority areas. The ISO Board of Governors adopted the Committee’s proposed governance structure and, in June 2016, approved an initial slate of Governing Body members carefully selected by a nominating committee of Western stakeholders. In accordance with the WEIM Governing Body charter, members were charged with promoting, protecting, and expanding the success of the WEIM for the benefit of its participants as a whole.
As the WEIM has continued to expand, the role of the WEIM Governing Body has grown as well. Since its inception in 2014, the WEIM has expanded to include 22 market participants across 11 Western states. The market has produced more than $5.49 billion in economic benefits for its participants that have translated into significant cost reductions for retail customers. It has strengthened reliability across the system by making it easier to share resources and has also resulted in substantial environmental benefits, eliminating more than 951,370 metric tons of carbon dioxide emissions through avoided curtailments of renewable energy.
As the WEIM has continued to expand, the role of the WEIM Governing Body has grown as well.
With input from market participants, regulators, the ISO’s Department of Market Monitoring, and a broad group of Western stakeholders representing multiple sectors, the WEIM Governing Body and the ISO Board of Governors have deliberated over a number of proposed market changes. Included among them has been the creation of the Extended Day-Ahead Market (EDAM) - a voluntary day-ahead market that will expand the benefits of the WEIM through the optimized commitment of diverse generation sources across a wide footprint in the day-ahead timeframe to meet next-day demand.
The EDAM is currently on track to become operational in 2026 and promises to deliver additional reliability, economic, and environmental benefits to balancing areas, utilities and retail customers throughout the West. PacifiCorp and Portland General Electric have already signed EDAM implementation agreements; the Balancing Authority of Northern California, Los Angeles Department of Water & Power, and NV Energy have informed the ISO of their interest; Idaho Power has said it is leaning toward the EDAM as its preferred day-ahead market. Interest is also continuing to grow among other potential market participants.
The original name “Energy Imbalance Market” (EIM), while quite literal, was intentional. With an emphasis on “imbalance”, the EIM name helped to communicate that this was not a comprehensive market, but a market limited to improving the efficiency of the short-term energy market. This real-time electricity market allows balancing authorities to optimize the dispatch of committed resources and integrate fledgling variable resources coming onto the system. It was an incremental step towards the potential for further efficiencies and improvements. The name may have seemed odd to many newcomers, but it helped improve understanding of what the market was designed to achieve.
The name served us well for ten years, but things have evolved and the more narrow focus on imbalance is no longer accurate. In light of ongoing ISO market developments and the adoption of EDAM, my colleagues and I have concluded it is appropriate to change the name of the WEIM Governing Body to more closely reflect what we do. So, with the concurrent approval of the ISO Board of Governors, the WEIM Governing Body will now become the Western Energy Markets (WEM) Governing Body.
In light of ongoing ISO market developments and the adoption of EDAM, my colleagues and I have concluded it is appropriate to change the name of the WEIM Governing Body to more closely reflect what we do.
As the ISO’s Western energy markets continue to evolve and expand, and given the dynamic nature of the energy sector, the Western Energy Imbalance Market and our Extended Day-Ahead Market are illustrative of the value of broad collaboration and innovation in creating a reliable, resilient, and sustainable energy future for the West. I am honored to have been selected once again by the Nominating Committee and reappointed by the WEIM Governing Body to continue my service in this time of transition. I am grateful to stakeholders across the West for their continued engagement, and their comments and perspectives that are so essential to informing Governing Body decisions. And I am excited to get to work, under a new name that better reflects our growing role overseeing the ISO’s Western Energy Markets.
