Department of Market Monitoring 2024 Annual Report on Market Issues and Performance, call on 8/12/25

The California ISO Department of Market Monitoring has published the 2024 Annual Report on Market Issues and Performance and has scheduled a stakeholder call on Aug. 12, 2025, to discuss reported analysis and findings.

Prices across the Western Energy Imbalance Market (WEIM) averaged about $40/MWh, down 35 percent from 2023 despite a 2 percent increase in load. The drop in electricity prices was due mainly to lower natural gas prices. 

Prices were highest on average in the Pacific Northwest region, at $49/MWh, and prices were lowest in the Desert Southwest, at $31/MWh. This price spread was caused by extreme cold weather in January in the Pacific Northwest and south-to-north congestion during solar hours throughout much of the year.

Renewable resources produced over 40 GW of power on average across the year, accounting for more than half of total WEIM system load. WEIM transfers between regions continued to be significantly different during mid-day solar hours than during evening and early morning hours. During solar hours, transfers were largely from the CAISO balancing area to other WEIM regions. During non-solar hours, transfers were lower and largely from the Desert Southwest and Intermountain West regions to California and the Pacific Northwest.

The report finds that the ISO’s wholesale electricity markets continued to perform efficiently and competitively.

Information related to market monitoring is available on the Market Monitoring webpage.