Idaho Power will be the sixth utility to join the Energy Imbalance Market (EIM) operated by the California Independent System Operator (CAISO), RTO Insider reports, when it brings its 4,800 miles of transmission into the voluntary real-time market system in April 2018.
By allowing for rebalancing of electricity demand across the western United States in real time, the EIM makes it possible for utilities to control costs and integrate higher penetrations of renewable energy without obligating them to give up system control to a grid operator, as RTO and ISO members do.
The EIM was formed in November 2014 by CAISO and PacifiCorp, the Northwest utility owned by Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway. Buffett's NV Energy joined the system in December 2015. Arizona Public Service and Washington’s Puget Sound Energy will join in October 2016, followed by Portland General Electric in October 2017.