The system is called the Extended Day-Ahead Market, or EDAM. It builds on an existing real-time electricity trading market that has operated across the West since 2014.
According to supporters of the new system, that real-time market has already saved customers in the region nearly $7 billion by allowing utilities to trade excess power in short time windows before demand spikes.
The new market expands that concept by giving utilities more time to plan ahead.
“When you have a day to plan, you know where the wind is going to be blowing, you know where the sun is going to be shining,” said Brian Turner with Advanced Energy United, an advocacy group focused on clean energy and grid modernization. “And you can turn up and down your other generation, the coal plants or the gas plants.”
Turner said utilities can use that added lead time to better balance supply and demand throughout the region, especially during extreme weather events, when electricity use can surge.
Supporters say EDAM could also help lower costs by allowing utilities to buy cheaper power from neighboring states instead of relying only on their own generation.
Rocky Mountain Power — Wyoming’s largest utility — is among the first participants in the new market, with additional Western utilities expected to join in the coming years.
The launch comes as utilities across the Mountain West face growing electricity demand, rising summer temperatures and increasing pressure to integrate more renewable energy sources like wind and solar into the grid.
This story was produced by the Mountain West News Bureau, a collaboration between KUNR, Wyoming Public Media, Nevada Public Radio, Boise State Public Radio in Idaho, KUNC in Northern Colorado, KANW in New Mexico, Colorado Public Radio, KJZZ in Arizona and NPR, with additional support from affiliate newsrooms across the region. Funding for the Mountain West News Bureau is provided in part by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting and Eric and Wendy Schmidt.
