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.

What is People in Power – A NewsData Podcast?

NewsData's "People in Power" is an exciting new biweekly podcast that explores issues in the energy industry, featuring expert guests from a wide range of backgrounds. Hosted by veteran energy journalists Jason Fordney and Abigail Sawyer of California Energy Markets and including appearances by writers from sister publication Clearing Up, People in Power will explore trends such as development of a Western wholesale electricity trading market, the transition to a more electrified world of new infrastructure and transportation, renewables integration and reliability, wildfire response and mitigation, and many other topics. "People in Power" draws from an unprecedented pool of expertise and insight in a way never seen before! It's available on all major podcast platforms as well as at www.newsdata.com.