The advisory committee of the Gas Industry Standards Board (GISB) said that it recently reviewed a report to discuss the creation of an energy industry standards board (EISB), which would be responsible for electronic communications standards for wholesale and retail electric and natural gas transactions.

GISB board Chairman Bill Boswell, assistant secretary, Dominion Resources Inc., told the committee that discussions with the electric industry, including representatives from the Edison Electric Institute (EEI) and the North American Electric Reliability Council (NERC), have been productive. He said that GISB, EEI and NERC have created task forces to discuss the organization of an EISB structure.

“My opinion is that we will have an EISB,” Boswell said at an advisory committee meeting in Austin, TX, last Monday. “I’m greatly encouraged by the progress we’ve made so far.”

GISB said discussions are currently centered around the EISB structure it proposed that consists of four quadrants including: wholesale gas, wholesale electricity, retail gas and retail electricity. The proposed structure calls for GISB to act as the wholesale gas segment of EISB. GISB said each segment is free to organize itself as it sees fit, but there would only be one board of directors.

According to GISB, the members of the advisory committee “generally expressed support” for the EISB discussions and recommended that the electric and gas committees of the National Association of Regulatory Utility Commissioners be briefed on the issue.

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