The Western Energy Imbalance Market (EIM), operated by the California Independent System Operator (ISO), set a second record in 2020 with $119.3 million in quarterly economic benefits.

This year's third quarter results marks the highest level of gross benefits achieved for the Western EIM since the real-time energy market launched in 2014, and raises the cumulative benefits to $1.11 billion.

"These strong results are further indication of the value of the EIM to market participants and consumers across the West," said ISO President and CEO Elliot Mainzer. "I look forward to continuing the ISO's efforts to increase the economic, environmental and reliability benefits of the EIM through the continued growth in participants and future market enhancements."

Results of the third quarter - July, August and September - can be partially attributed to high load conditions during the extreme August heatwave which drove tighter supply conditions and high prices across the West.

During the third quarter of 2020, the economic benefits by participant includes:



As the amount of renewable energy on the grid increases, there are times when output from variable resources exceeds the demand for electricity. To balance the grid, those resources are often curtailed. But because of the regional collaboration among EIM participants, clean energy resources are now transferred across the West to serve demand where needed, leading to a 37,548 megawatt hour reduction in curtailments in the third quarter and more than 1,280 gigawatt hours overall since 2015.

With the increased generation of carbon-free electricity, the cumulative CO2 emissions have been reduced by 549,452 metric tons, or the equivalent of taking 115,520 passenger cars off the road.

Over the next two years, the Western EIM is scheduled to add nine new balancing authorities. When these participants are operational in 2022, the EIM will serve 82 percent of the Western Electricity Coordinating Council's (WECC) total load.

Source: Western Energy Imbalance Market (WIM)