Final verdict's not in on RTOs, wholesale electric transmission: Stability or continued confusion?

摘要

Over the past year, the structure of the wholesale electric transmission industry in the United States has continued its dramatic transformation. In the wake of the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission's (FERC) landmark Order 2000, which outlined the general principles around which Regional Transmission Organizations (RTO's) should be developed, FERC continued to press for a national transmission grid solely controlled by RTOs. In promoting an RTO-based national transmission grid, FERC has continued its efforts to ensure widespread access to the competitive wholesale market, as well as to promote efficient and reliable market practices. Although the principles behind the RTO have not changed drastically over the past year, the overall scope of the RTOs envisioned by FERC has expanded. After the issuance of FERC Order 2000, existing and developing transmission entities responded by submitting plans to FERC that would have created several RTOs within each of various regions of the United States. At the time, FERC seemed to envision a transmission landscape dotted by more than a dozen independently functioning RTOs. FERC's proposed approach changed in July of 2001, when it issued orders to facilitate the development of four larger consolidated RTOs that would administer over the Northeast, Midwest, West, and Southeast U.S. Thus far, of the four entities, only Midwest ISO has received approval from FERC to become a fully operational RTO. The status of the other three regions is shrouded by various levels of uncertainty.