Brattle Study Analyzes Potential Customer Impacts of the Bonneville Power Administration's Day-Ahead Market Participation Options

BOSTON, Oct. 9, 2024 /PRNewswire/ -- In a new report, experts from The Brattle Group examine the potential customer impacts of the Bonneville Power Administration (BPA) – which covers much of the Pacific Northwest – joining either the Extended Day Ahead Market (EDAM) or Markets+. The authors find that joining EDAM creates the largest customer savings for the BPA Balancing Authority Area of all options, of more than $65 million per year.

The report, BPA Day-Ahead Market Participation Benefits Study, was prepared for GridLab, the Northwest & Intermountain Power Producers Coalition (NIPPC), the NW Energy Coalition, PNGC Power, and Renewable Northwest. The report builds on the work conducted with numerous utilities across the Western Electricity Coordinating Council (WECC) to assess the benefits of market participation in the region. Using system-specific data from more than ten utilities in the WECC, the authors model the Western US power system and calculate the relative cost for BPA customers – and for the broader Pacific Northwest region – of participating in the EDAM or Markets+ when compared to staying in the Western Energy Imbalance Market (WEIM).

"We find that if most of the Pacific Northwest, including BPA, joined EDAM, customers in the region would see a cost reduction of $430 million per year," said Brattle Principal John Tsoukalis, lead author of the study.

The key benefit differentiator in customer cost savings between the two markets is the diversity of the generation resource mix available in an EDAM footprint, which includes the Pacific Northwest as well as parts of the Southwest.

The BPA Day-Ahead Market Participation Benefits Study was coauthored by Brattle Principal John Tsoukalis, Senior Consultant Kai Van Horn, Principal Hannes Pfeifenberger, Energy Specialist Evan Bennett, Energy Research Analysts Son Phan and Jack Kalinski, and former analyst Ellery Curtis. The study's findings will be presented in a webinar hosted by the study participants on October 17, 2024. Learn details and register for the webinar here.

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SOURCE The Brattle Group