Restructuring

Recent Information

PPC files post-seams-conference comments on MRTU...Read comments

SnoPUD wins important case against FERC. Snohomish County PUD won an important case arising out of the Western energy crisis. The 9th Circuit held that FERC cannot take short-cuts around the requirement that rates, including market-based rates, must be "just and reasonable." Read the case here

PPC Files Comments on BPA's Regional Dialogue Proposal..Read comments

PPC Files comments on California MRTU FERC...Read comments

Showalter Addresses Western Issues Facing FERC

The California ISO’s Market Redesign and Technology Upgrade (MRTU) proposal is “a serious, serious issue to the West,” one that has implications well beyond the ISO’s footprint, according to PPC Executive Director Marilyn Showalter. FERC is expected to consider MRTU this fall.

In an interview with OnPoint, a web cast program produced by Environment and Energy (E&E) Television, Showalter said the proposal would introduce a pricing mechanism that has been used “unsuccessfully” in the East.  “It has driven prices up,” she stated.  

The MRTU proposal embraces “locational marginal pricing,” Showalter explained.  The ultimate test is to ask what it means for the end consumers, she said, pointing out that in New England, where the mechanism has been tried, prices have gone higher.  “I certainly hope that FERC does not approve the whole [MRTU] package first without putting the brakes on locational marginal pricing,” Showalter said. 

[Note: On September 21, 2006, FERC approved the MRTU proposal which is scheduled to go into effect November 2007.]

Click here to see the entire OnPoint interview transcript (pdf), including remarks on BPA’s Regional Dialogue proposal. 

Click here to watch interview.

More information on MRTU 
More information on ColumbiaGrid

OATT: More information about FERC’s Open-Access Transmission Tariff (OATT) can be found with other PPC transmission issues.

On December 20, 1999, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) issued Order 2000 with the intent of restructuring and deregulating transmission.

Stated Objective -- For “all transmission-owning entities in the Nation, including non-public [consumer-owned] utility entities, to place their transmission facilities under the control of appropriate RTOs in a timely manner.”

Under the Assumption -- RTOs “could (1) improve efficiencies in transmission grid management; (2) improve grid reliability; (3) remove remaining opportunities for discriminatory transmission practices; (4) improve market performance; and (5) facilitate lighter handed regulation.”

Participation “Voluntary” -- Jurisdictional IOUs that own interstate transmission were required to file “with the Commission by October 15, 2000, a proposal for an RTO with the minimum characteristics and functions to be operational by December 15, 2001, or, alternatively, a description of efforts to participate in an RTO, any existing obstacles to RTO participation, and any plans to work toward RTO participation.”  Non-jurisdictional entities such as BPA and public power utilities are urged to comply vis-a-vis reciprocity provisions.  See Restructuing Archives.  

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