Western Energy Imbalance Market Tops $3B in Benefits

With fourth-quarter results in for 2022, the Western Energy Imbalance Market (WEIM) has achieved a new milestone, reaching $3.4 billion in cumulative benefits since the market launched in 2014 and accumulating more than $1 billion in benefits in a single year for the first time.

The $485.29 million in fourth-quarter benefits for 2022 is also the second largest quarterly total for the WEIM due to more participants joining the market, a greater volume of economical transfers that displaced more expensive generation, and higher electricity prices due to high natural gas prices in December.

Operated by the California Independent System Operator (ISO), the WEIM is designed to enable participants to buy and sell power close to the time electricity is consumed. With state-of-the art technology, the market finds and delivers lowest-cost resources to meet immediate power needs and manages congestion on transmission lines to maintain grid reliability.

The 2022 fourth quarter economic benefit for each participant is shown below:

Later this year, Avangrid, El Paso Electric, and the Western Area Power Administration- Desert Southwest Region are expected to join the WEIM. With their participation in the real-time energy market, the entities will represent nearly 80% of the load within the Western Electricity Coordinating Council (WECC).

The WEIM footprint includes portions of Arizona, Idaho, Montana, Nevada, New Mexico,Oregon, Utah, Washington, and Wyoming, and extends to the border with Canada.