One crucial component in the drive toward carbon neutrality is reshaping how states govern the electrical grid. Presently, California’s grid is managed by the California Independent System Operator (CAISO), a non-profit regional transmission organization (RTO) that plans grid expansion and manages electricity markets.
CAISO’s circumscribed borders limit its ability to efficiently operate and expand California’s electric transmission grid. Nonetheless, the Ninth Circuit held in CPUC v. FERC that electricity consumers must continue paying a surcharge to their utilities to incentivize them to remain participants in CAISO. CAISO provides many benefits to Californians, but a West-wide RTO could provide even more. Moreover, the urgent need to garner new sources of renewable electricity generation necessitates that California facilitate the creation of a regional grid operator that can effectively promote the development of new, green transmission lines. California has already taken the first step by approving a new study on the costs and benefits of a regional RTO. The state must act quickly upon finishing the study, which will likely indicate that California’s participation in a western RTO would offer myriad benefits both to the state and the country, including greater proliferation of renewables, cheaper energy prices, and more clean energy jobs.
