BOISE, Idaho (AP) - Idaho Power officials say the company has agreed to join the western Energy Imbalance Market in 2018 as long as they get regulatory approval.
The western Energy Imbalance Market is intended to give energy operators more flexibility so they can keep the power grid humming at the right rate. It already includes providers in Idaho and six other states. Idaho Power, which serves nearly 525,000 in southern Idaho and eastern Oregon, announced its agreement to join the market on Wednesday.
Typically energy companies trade one-hour blocks of energy to address fluctuations in supply and demand. Energy Imbalance Markets pool those resources over a larger region and allow power providers to automatically balance supply and demand in 15-minute increments. That means power companies can draw on more energy generation resources like solar and wind power that may not have a steady flow of power over the course of an entire hour.
The market was launched by the California Independent System Operator and Oregon-based PacifiCorp in 2014. The market currently dispatches energy in California, Oregon, Washington, Nevada, Utah, Idaho and Wyoming. Additional energy providers in Washington, Oregon and Arizona are also expected to join over the next several months.
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