Perspective

The benefits and future challenges of regional transmission organizations.

If Compaq owned FedEx, would Dell be certain to get the same terms and conditions for overnight delivery as Compaq? Similarly, if a municipal utility wanted to contract with a supplier within the service territory of an incumbent utility that owned the transmission system and generation, how hard would it be to get transmission service to access the power?

Business & Money

The Securities and Exchange Commission denies approval of the AEP/CSW merger. What will that mean for industry consolidation?

What's wrong the Public Utility Holding Company Act of 1935 (PUHCA)? Perhaps the date! On May 3, 2005, a Securities and Exchange (SEC) administrative law judge (ALJ) handed down a ruling that denied the application of American Electric Power Co. (AEP) seeking approval of its acquisition of Central and South West Corp.

Recent attrition raises the question: Consolidation or death spiral?

When GridAmerica LLC closes its doors at the end of this year, the number of independent transmission companies (transcos) in the United States will fall by one-fourth. Only three ITCs will remain: American Transmission Co. (ATC), International Transmission Co. (ITC), and Trans-Elect Inc.

A proposal to remove the bottlenecks on grid investment.

Investments in the U.S. transmission grid have been declining since the early 1970s.¹ Reasons include: 1) regulatory uncertainty; 2) onerous and multiple regulatory jurisdictions; 3) an extremely complex and time-consuming siting and permitting process; 4) uncertainty in the basic "who pays" vs. "who benefits" equation; and 5) shortcomings in the regional-planning processes.