FERC Chairman Pat Wood last Thursday said that he wasn’t disappointed with the number of settlements that were recently reached between several power suppliers and California over disputed high-priced contracts signed by the state during the 2000-2001 western energy crisis.

FERC Chief Administrative Law Judge (ALJ) Curtis Wagner recently said that six power suppliers had brokered either settlements in principle or final settlements with California over the contracts. Two other sellers were “very close” to agreement and two companies, Allegheny Energy and Morgan Stanley, had dropped out of the settlement talks, Wagner reported last month.

“Commissioners love settlements, particularly on money issues,” Wood told reporters following FERC’s regular agenda meeting. When asked whether he was disappointed that more settlements weren’t reached, Wood responded, “No, not at all. I was thrilled that there are as many as there are.” He went on to say, “It looks like old Wagner is earning his paycheck.”

Meanwhile, Wood said that he plans to have FERC take up for consideration later this month a set of filings made by the WestConnect and RTO West entities involving separate proposals for the creation of grid operators in the West and Pacific Northwest. He said that it’s his intention to have the Commission discuss orders involving the proposed RTOs at FERC’s next regular meeting scheduled for Sept. 18.

Utilities included in the WestConnect RTO efforts include Arizona Public Service Co., El Paso Electric Co., Public Service Co. of New Mexico and Tucson Electric Power Co. The WestConnect effort derives from earlier efforts to form an independent system operator in the Southwest known as DesertSTAR.

RTO West is a proposed RTO that a coalition of utilities in the Pacific Northwest and British Columbia are working to develop. The coalition includes Avista Corp., Bonneville Power Administration, British Columbia Hydro and Power Authority, Idaho Power, Montana Power, Nevada Power Co., PacifiCorp, Portland General Electric, Puget Sound Energy and Sierra Pacific Power.

Several members of RTO West have proposed a for-profit independent transmission company (ITC) called TransConnect LLC. The ITC would own and operate the interstate transmission facilities of Avista, Montana Power, Nevada Power, Portland General, Puget Sound and Sierra Pacific, with TransConnect participating in RTO West as a single transmission owner.

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