BY THE START OF 1998, FOUR INDEPENDENT SYSTEM operators already were in operation and conditionally approved: ISO-NE, PJM and California by the FERC and Texas by the state PUC. Three more were either pending before the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission or expected to be filed in the coming months (New York, Midwest and IndeGO in the Northwest). Three additional efforts to develop ISO proposals were under way (DesertSTAR, MAPP and SPP). The Southeast is now the only large region of the contiguous United States without an ISO concept.
As proposed, most of the ISOs are independent entities that will functionally control grids under contracts with transmission-owning utilities (TOs). Their main responsibilities are non-discriminatory transmission access, short-term reliability and transmission planning. Only ISO-New England and the Pennsylvania-New Jersey-Maryland Interconnection will also serve as power exchanges. The table below compares eight of the ISO proposals based on public documents as of December 1997. F
Source: "Independent Transmission System Operators and Their Role in Maintaining Reliability in a Restructured Electric Power Industry," prepared by ICF Resources Inc. for the Department of Energy Task Force on Electric System Reliability. Used with permission from DOE and ICF.
Contact: James F. Wilson at ICF, jfw@mindspring.com.
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