Perspective

Deck: 
Emotions have run high in the SMD/RTO debate. It's time for cooler heads to prevail.
Fortnightly Magazine - June 1 2003
This full article is only accessible by current license holders. Please login to view the full content.
Don't have a license yet? Click here to sign up for Public Utilities Fortnightly, and gain access to the entire Fortnightly article database online.


Emotions have run high in the SMD/RTO debate. It's time for cooler heads to prevail.

During my father's long career as practicing attorney and state senator from Kentucky, he has been on both sides of issues involving the federal government. He always said that when opposing the federal government, they should be referred to as the "gov'ment." This reference evokes everyone's visceral distaste for taxes, "pointy head bureaucrats," gasoline additives, etc. But when you are on the side of the federal government, the reference should change to "the United States of America" (said slowly and reverently). This will surely swell the chests of your audience with pride.

The point is, these references are all about emotion. I submit that this emotion is at work as regulators and industry collectively wrestle with the difficult issue of electric industry restructuring. Otherwise, much of what is being said about restructuring and regional transmission organizations (RTOs) would be difficult to understand.

I will not discuss the details of the proposed standard market design but will instead look at some of the concerns raised by the proposed movement to RTOs as the vehicle to ensure non-discriminatory open access and thereby enable competitive wholesale markets.

The Anti-RTO Argument

A catalogue of the concerns being raised in the debate, particularly as they relate to formation of RTOs, would look something like the following:

This full article is only accessible by current license holders. Please login to view the full content.
Don't have a license yet? Click here to sign up for Public Utilities Fortnightly, and gain access to the entire Fortnightly article database online.