To the Editor:
Your recent commentary, “Kicked Off and On Schedule” (June 2006) reasonably captures many of the implementation issues and stakeholder concerns surrounding the California Independent System Operator (Cal-ISO) Market Redesign and Technology Upgrade (MRTU) program. However, I was somewhat disappointed that the article offered few details about the benefits MRTU will provide and instead focused primarily on remaining implementation issues and other issues that are to some extent unrelated to the MRTU, such as capacity markets. While the article does reluctantly mention the broad support that continues to be expressed publicly by California’s three investor-owned utilities, numerous other load-serving entities, nearly all the independent generators, and state policy-makers at the California Energy Commission (CEC) and the California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC), it glosses over, and in some cases ignores, the many benefits MRTU will bring to California and the Western electricity markets.