Taming the Wild Western Power Grid

Unlike the rest of North America, the West’s power grid outside California is a patchwork of utility fiefdoms generating, wheeling and distributing electricity. Centralized electricity markets dominate the rest of the continent.

There is widespread consensus in the energy industry that the West needs greater coordination if it’s going to decarbonize and keep the lights on in millions of homes from New Mexico to British Columbia. Two organizations—the Southwest Power Pool and the California ISO—are pushing competing proposals to create a day-ahead and real-time market in the West.

NewsData’s Abigail Sawyer, Jason Fordney and Dan Catchpole have been closely covering these evolutions. They recently sat down to discuss the proposals, what’s happened so far and what could happen next.Read more coverage from NewsData’s Clearing Up and California Energy Markets.