A New Frontier for the Western Electric Grid

The Western states have seen their share of challenges in recent years when it comes to electric reliability – with rolling blackouts in California, extreme drought and wildfires, and political differences across a broad geographic expanse. The North American Electric Reliability Corporation included the region on its watch list for areas that could experience electric shortages this summer should temperatures spike. We check in with Scott Miller, Executive Director of the Western Power Trading Forum, to hear what’s unique about America’s frontier, what’s ahead this summer for the region’s power grid, and how efforts to enhance reliability, cost savings, and emissions reductions by expanding organized power markets are progressing.

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Chapters

• 2:03 What is the WPTF?
• 9:03 What's driving electric reliability concerns across the West
• 20:58 Navigating RTOs
• 27:42 Lessons Learned from the Western Energy Crisis in the 2000s
• 33:32 Western Issues Today
• 36:55 New Technologies on the Horizon