Electric market participants in the Northeast last week resolvedto further explore whether the region should become one broadregional transmission organization (RTO) or whether it should bebroken up into smaller RTOs.

At the forefront is whether the three existing Northeastindependent system operators (ISOs) — New England, New York andPennsylvania-New Jersey-Maryland — should combine into one majorRTO or form individual RTOs. This issue will have to be resolved intime for the ISOs to file at FERC in January 2001.

At the RTO workshop in Philadelphia last week, the Northeastmarket participants formed several working subgroups to addressinterregional coordination issues, such as transmission operations,business practices, and planning and expansion.

The ISOs proposed that each working group would meet at four- tosix-week intervals, and that a broad, interregional symposiumwould be held in next fall to take stock of the status of thecollaborative efforts.

It was made clear that no RTO proposals for theNortheast-Mid-Atlantic areas were off the table for futurediscussion, and that there was no predetermined organizationalform. Information about the northeastern regional collaborationeffort will be on the web site at www.isomou.com as it develops.

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