FERC Chairman Pat Wood last Wednesday said that it is getting tougher for him to remain committed to the voluntary nature of the Commission’s landmark Order 2000, which spelled out the agency’s expectations that transmission owners will join regional transmission organizations (RTOs), against the backdrop of several RTO membership rosters remaining in a state of flux several years after that decision was issued.

Wood made his remarks after the Commission heard from representatives of PJM Interconnection, the New York Independent System Operator (NYISO), ISO New England and the Midwest Independent System Transmission Operator (MISO) on the grid operators’ plans to tackle seams issues (see related story).

“I am holding on tenuously to the voluntary nature of Order 2000,” he said. “It gets harder every day,” Wood added. He underscored the point that he doesn’t want to see another year of “treading water” when it comes to forming RTOs. “We’ve got markets to put together.” Order 2000 was issued by the Commission in December 1999.

At a press briefing following the meeting, Wood expanded on this topic. “We need this stuff to happen yesterday,” the chairman said. “The last Commission wanted it on Dec. 15, 2001; we’re now six months after that,” Wood went on to say. “We’ve just basically got to say the stall game is not going to work,” he told reporters.

MISO and PJM earlier this year declared their intent to create a joint and common wholesale electric energy market serving the needs of 27 states plus the District of Columbia and a Canadian province. ISO New England and the NYISO have executed an agreement to develop a common electricity marketplace for their adjacent regions based on a common market design and to jointly evaluate the feasibility of creating a regional transmission organization (RTO) in the Northeast.

FERC in December of last year gave RTO status to MISO, while at the same time it rejected the Alliance RTO, a for-profit transco. Now, several Alliance Companies members are scrambling to find new RTO homes. Illinois Power, Commonwealth Edison and American Electric Power (AEP) all recently announced plans to join PJM, while FirstEnergy said that it wants to join MISO.

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