Washington State's Grant PUD will spend much of the next two years preparing to make a big change in the way it buys the electricity it needs when generation from Priest Rapids and Wanapum dams isn’t enough and sells when the dams generate more than what’s needed to power Grant County.
Grant PUD Commissioners heard during their first workshop of the month in April that the change in power marketing will help ensure Grant PUD:
- Continues providing reliable service to its customers at the lowest possible cost.
- Gets the maximum value for its surplus power and generation capacity it sells by having access to a bigger, organized market of buyers and sellers.
- Complies with state clean-energy laws.
- Keeps up with the county’s growing demand for electricity as the utility invests in more transmission and generation capacity.
Grant PUD will begin this transition by participating with other utilities in a resource-sharing plan called the Western Resource Adequacy Program (WRAP). Participation in the WRAP is mandatory for the next step of the transition – joining an organized energy market called “Markets+.”
Markets+ is a first-of-its kind market, made by and for western utilities, with collaboration in mind and as a competitor to a similar market developed, administered, and operated by the California Independent System Operator (CAISO). Markets+ will be operated by the Southwest Power Pool.
The market operator will use a shared software platform interconnected with participating Western utilities to support energy trading and price formation for power bought and sold across the region.
Markets+ will be capable of scheduling power transactions both a day ahead and as close as five minutes before delivery. This flexibility allows the market to respond quickly to real-time grid conditions, supporting rapid supply ramping up or down as wind and solar power generation fluctuates.
For decades, wholesale electricity transactions have been relatively simple and largely “bilateral,” focused on balancing changes in energy demand and generation, Grant PUD noted.
When Grant PUD joins Markets+, the process for wholesale electricity transactions changes from “bilateral” arrangements to a centralized, multilateral market, where many buyers and sellers submit offers into a shared platform and energy prices are established through regional market transactions rather than individual bilateral negotiations.
"An organized market replaces one off negotiations with regional coordination, allowing supply and demand to be balanced more efficiently, prices set transparently, and variability from solar and wind generation managed across many participants instead of by each utility alone," it said.
Commissioners in October 2025 approved the utility’s membership in The Energy Authority, a Florida-based public-power-focused energy trader and analytics consultant to help with this.
TEA will act as an extension of Grant PUD staff to get the most value from the utility’s participation in Markets+. Work has already begun to add necessary staff and prepare the utility to successfully participate in Markets+. System testing is slated for early 2028.
Grant PUD, Chelan PUD, the Bonneville Power Administration, Puget Sound Energy and Tacoma Power have already announced their intention to join Markets+ in October 2028.
Utilities in Arizona and Colorado, as well as British Columbia’s power marketer Powerex will join in October 2027.
