The Western Energy Imbalance Market (WEIM) Governing Body Elected New Chair and Vice-chair
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June 30, 2022
Summary:
The Western Energy Imbalance Market (WEIM) Governing Body today elected Rob Kondziolka and Jennifer Gardner to serve as its chair and vice-chair. The WEIM Governing Body also voted to reappoint member John Prescott and appoint a new member, Andrew Campbell, to replace outgoing Governing Body member Valerie Fong. Fong, formerly the City of Palo Alto’s Utilities Director, has served on the Governing Body since it was established in 2016. The WEIM Governing Body oversees the WEIM real-time energy market, which now includes 19 participants and has generated more than $2 billion in cumulative benefits to participating entities since its launch in November 2014. The WEIM Governing Body was designed by regional stakeholders to give entities throughout the West a voice in decision-making on WEIM matters. The Governing Body has shared authority with the ISO Board of Governors to resolve rules specific to participation in the WEIM. The WEIM is designed to enable participants to buy and sell power close to the time electricity is consumed. With state-of-the art technology, the market finds and delivers lowest-cost resources to meet immediate power needs and manages congestion on transmission lines to maintain grid reliability. The WEIM also provides system operators real-time visibility across neighboring grids, resulting in a more efficient balancing of supply and demand. Operated by the ISO, the WEIM footprint includes portions of Arizona, California, Idaho, Montana, Nevada, New Mexico, Oregon, Utah, Washington, and Wyoming, and extends to the border with Canada. By next year, the active WEIM participants are expected to represent nearly 80% of the load within the Western Electricity Coordinating Council (WECC).
Additional Discussion:
Kondziolka, an established leader in the utility industry, assumes the WEIM Governing Body chair duties July 1, following Anita Decker’s term as chair this past year. A member of the WEIM Governing Body since early 2020, Kondziolka’s current term will end June 30, 2024.
Gardner, an attorney and independent energy consultant, will serve as the WEIM Governing Body vice chair beginning July 1. Prior to joining the WEIM Governing Body in 2021, she served in various WEIM leadership roles including Regional Issues Forum vice chair, WEIM Governance Review Committee member, and a member of previous WEIM nominating committees. Prescott, a founding member of the WEIM Governing Body, was reappointed to serve another three year-term that ends on June 30, 2025. Prior to joining the Governing Body, Prescott worked at Idaho Power and Seattle City Light and was president and chief executive officer of Pacific Northwest Generating Cooperative until his retirement in 2016. Campbell, whose term will end in June 2025, is the executive director of the Energy Institute at Haas at the University of California, Berkeley, and has been on the WEIM Governance Review Committee for the past two years. He has been in the energy industry his entire career and has experience in the public and private sector. He also serves on the Power Association of Northern California (PANC) Board of Directors.
Link to WEIM
