The Sacramento Municipal Utility District (SMUD) will start negotiations to join the Western real-time energy imbalance market, the first municipal utility to do so, the Sacramento Business Journal reports.
The Balancing Authority of Northern California (BANC)—which is operated by SMUD and made up of seven members—will also start negotiations with the California ISO after finalizing a study of benefits to evaluate the potential savings for customers if they joined the EIM.
It will cost SMUD about $6.5 million to obtain the necessary equipment, systems and workforce to join the EIM and cost $2.5 million annually for operations. But SMUD customers will save $5 million annually, the report said.
