CAISO submits first Assembly Bill 825 report to Legislature and Governor

FOLSOM, Calif. – The California Independent System Operator (CAISO) has delivered its first report pursuant to Assembly Bill 825, accounting for various 2025 activities undertaken by the ISO.

Assembly Bill 825, which was approved by the California Legislature and signed by Gov. Newsom last September, envisions transitioning market governance to a new regional organization after January 1, 2028. As part of that transition, the bill requires the ISO to submit an annual report to the Governor and Legislature no later than February 1 every year addressing issues related to market, tariff and transmission activities.

“The ISO appreciates the commitment by Gov. Newsom and the Legislature to support independent governance of the real-time and day-ahead regional electricity markets that benefit consumers across the West,” Elliot Mainzer, ISO President and CEO, said. “We look forward to continuing to work with the state and stakeholders throughout the region to help make that new governance framework a reality.”

Under the model envisioned by the West-wide Governance Pathways Initiative and this supporting legislation, the new regional organization would oversee both the 11-year-old Western Energy Imbalance Market (WEIM) and the Extended Day-Ahead Market (EDAM) scheduled to launch in May.

In the report submitted to the Governor and Legislature, the ISO addressed a range of topics from 2025 that included tariff changes, decisions by the ISO Board of Governors, an assessment of market activity for the year and transmission planning.

Under the terms of the legislation, the chair of the ISO Board of Governors and the chief executive officer of the ISO are required to present the report annually before the energy policy committees of the Assembly and Senate.

Since its launch in 2014, the WEIM has resulted in approximately $8 billion in savings for market participants and their customers while strengthening grid reliability and resilience. Because more energy transactions occur in the day-ahead timeframe, EDAM is projected to build on and significantly expand those benefits.

The ISO provides comprehensive grid planning, open and nondiscriminatory access to one of the largest networks of high-voltage transmission power lines in the world and operates a competitive electricity market that in 2024 included $16.1 billion in transactions. In helping to carry out California’s energy policy objectives, the ISO is at the forefront of integrating renewable power and advanced technologies that will help provide a reliable and sustainable energy future efficiently and cleanly. 

The Western Energy Imbalance Market (WEIM) is a real-time wholesale energy trading market that enables participants throughout the West to buy and sell energy when needed. Since its inception in 2014, it has resulted in more than $7 billion in financial benefits to market participants and their customers and has enhanced reliability across the region by sharing diverse resources and optimizing inter-connected transmission.  The Western Energy Markets Governing Body, designed by regional stakeholders, has primary decision-making authority regarding rules specific to participation in the WEIM and Extended Day-Ahead Market.