CAISO's EDAM & DAME Initiatives
Initiative Overview
California ISO is preparing to launch two major initiatives. The Extended Day-Ahead Market (EDAM) and Day-Ahead Market Enhancements (DAME). Both go live on May 1, 2026.
EDAM opens the existing Day-Ahead Market to Western Energy Imbalance Market (WEIM) participants, creating a single, regional platform for day-ahead scheduling and optimization. To support this expansion, the DAME initiative updates CAISO’s market design to better handle reliability and uncertainty. Together, these initiatives represent a significant step toward a more coordinated Western energy market.
Specifically, DAME is introducing new products: Imbalance Reserve (Up/Down) and Reliability Capacity (Up/Down), to ensure sufficient capacity is available to manage forecast uncertainty and real-time variability. These products will be procured and settled on an hourly basis, based on next-day forecasts and historical conditions. Under EDAM, all loads and resources within participating balancing areas must submit offers, resulting in no non-participating resources. For participants, these changes bring new data, settlement, and operational requirements that organizations must address.
Hartigen’s Role
Hartigen is updating PowerOptix to ensure customers are ready for these changes. Enhancements include support for DAME’s new products, updated bid and offer strategy processes, expanded integration with CAISO reports, and major settlement logic updates to accommodate the new day-ahead structure. In addition to preparing for the upcoming market changes, Hartigen is partnering with clients to implement custom settlement allocations that enable accurate downstream billing processes. These capabilities help organizations prepare early, reduce manual effort, and operate confidently as CAISO transitions to a more integrated Western market.
Important Milestones
June 1, 2025 – Connectivity and integration testing begins for EDAM, DAME, and CAISO BAA participants
September 2, 2025 – Market simulation begins using the MAP Stage
February 2, 2026 – Parallel operations testing begins
May 1, 2026 – EDAM and DAME go live for early participants
May to October 2026 – Additional onboarding for participants (e.g., PacifiCorp in May, Portland General Electric in October)
Key Takeaways
CAISO’s Day-Ahead Market Enhancements (DAME) and Extended Day-Ahead Market (EDAM) are moving toward a May 1, 2026 go-live.
These changes introduce new reliability products and expand participation across the Western Energy Imbalance Market (WEIM).
Participants will see new bidding requirements, settlement structures, and data exchange formats.
Reference
Content in this edition reflects Hartigen’s internal expertise, with significant contributions from our CAISO market expert, Debra Andrews. Thank you as well, Michael Canto and David Potts for your contributions.
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