Organizations

Regional Transmission Organizations (RTOs), a gridinterconnection policy and FERC’s merger-review policy are issuesthat have captured the interest of the electric industry, butCommissioner William Massey says natural gas companies should beequally as curious since the measures are likely to favorablyinfluence demand.

Regional Transmission Organizations (RTOs), a gridinterconnection policy and FERC’s merger-review policy are issuesthat have captured the interest of the electric industry, butCommissioner William Massey says natural gas should be equally ascurious since the measures are likely to influence demand.

Separating itself from government-created organizations like theCalifornia Power Exchange, the privately funded California-basedAutomated Power Exchange (APX) yesterday (July 27) announced plansto set up shop with a cash-based exchange in Illinois this fallwhen customer choice begins (Oct. 1) in the electricity industry.The announcement was made in Chicago in conjunction with localinvestor-owned utility Commonwealth Edison, whose transmissionsystem will be used to create a competitive power market inIllinois.

In a classic states’ rights confrontation, California ischallenging FERC jurisdiction over the operation of the state’s twononprofit organizations created to make electric restructuring runsmoothly, the Independent System Operator (ISO) overseeing thetransmission grid and the Power Exchange (PX) providing a wholesalespot electricity market. Two bills have been proposed in the statelegislature to change the status of the ISO and PX in directresponse to FERC jurisdictional questions.