California Grid Operator Reports $1.62 Billion in 2025 Savings from Western Energy Imbalance Market

The California Independent System Operator on Feb. 13 reported that the Western Energy Imbalance Market delivered $1.62 billion in economic benefits to participating utilities in 2025, raising total cumulative savings to $8.24 billion since the market launched in 2014. The real-time market enables balancing authorities across the Western U.S. to buy and sell electricity every five minutes, lowering costs while improving grid reliability.

The quarterly benefits report evaluates cost savings tied to dispatch efficiencies and environmental gains achieved by replacing higher-cost generation with renewable resources. Since its inception, the market has helped participants avoid more than 1.15 million metric tons of carbon dioxide emissions, roughly equal to removing about 236,000 passenger vehicles from the road for a year.

The grid operator delayed publication of the latest report to refine its benefits methodology in coordination with market participants. The update reflects evolving resource mixes and changing operating conditions across the West, ensuring that reported savings remain transparent and aligned with current system realities.

Beyond economic savings, the market strengthens reliability by enabling electricity transfers across a broad geographic footprint, helping operators respond to real-time supply and demand imbalances and extreme weather conditions.

The report also highlights the forthcoming Extended Day-Ahead Market, scheduled to launch in 2026. The day-ahead platform is expected to expand on the imbalance market’s success by optimizing power scheduling before real-time operations, where most energy trading occurs, expected to improve market coordination and reduce costs across the region.