It would join an RTO but dictate the terms — a dangerous game that has the industry talking.
The industry requires new analytical tools to incorporate the realities of today's higher risk operating and investment environment into the equity allowance process.
New realities demand new direction from utilities.
We ask merchant grid developers if anything can ever be done.
FERC should consider a two-part tariff to boost transmission investment.
Commission Watch
How far will FERC go to restore market confidence?
Despite keen industry interest in FERC's proposed "rules of the road," aka new codes of conduct, it appears the industry will have to wait. FERC recently granted extensions for filings, and the commission will not gather all reply comments until Sept. 18. Filings so far point to differences over the proposals, especially in time frames for reporting bad behavior, appropriate monetary penalties, and defining to whom the rules apply.
Perspective
Proper authority and market monitoring and mitigation could make the system work.
In the last few years we have watched appalled as the western U.S. electricity markets collapsed, taking with them the solvency and viability of several very large participants, including the California Power Exchange (PX).
Outdated "wisdom" wastes the nation's electricity infrastructure. Distributed CH&P is the answer.
The venerated process may get a makeover.
Can RTO market monitors really be independent?
The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) initiatives on regional transmission organizations (RTOs) and standard market design give new prominence to the market monitoring institution (MMI), a novel regulatory tool never before contemplated in legislation.1