The West’s First Day-Ahead Energy Market is Now Live

Today, the Extended Day-Ahead Market (EDAM) has launched, marking a major milestone in the West’s long effort to build a broad, coordinated, and reliable regional energy market.

As the West’s largest day-ahead market, EDAM will help utilities across the region better plan electricity needs one day in advance and more efficiently share electricity across state lines. This improved coordination will create a stronger, more resilient grid, lower customer costs, and make better use of advanced energy resources being added across the region. Additionally, it will help the region respond to its growing energy affordability and reliability challenges.

“This is a major step forward in how the West can cooperate on a more reliable, affordable, and efficient electricity system,” said Advanced Energy United’s Senior Director Brian Turner. “What began as a vision for stronger regional coordination has now become a functioning, robust market that will deliver real benefit for consumers, businesses, and grid operators across the West.”

EDAM will soon be governed by the Regional Organization for Western Energy, an independent governing body designed to ensure transparent decision-making, strong regional representation, and meaningful participation from states, regulators, and stakeholders across the West. “It’s a uniquely Western approach, built by the West, for the West,” Turner added.

For more than a decade, Advanced Energy United has worked alongside utilities, industry, regulators, legislators, and other stakeholders across the region to support the creation of a West-wide market. The launch of EDAM and development of the ROWE are significant steps ahead for this effort. Read more about our vision for how the ROWE can continue to evolve in our recent report, which can be found at bythewest.org.