WHAT IS HAPPENING AND WHERE IN THE WORLD OF RTOS AND ISOS?

This article briefly recaps Regional Transmission Organizations (RTOs) and Independent Transmission System Operators (ISOs) development beginning with Order No. 888 and surveys the current trends in regions across the country as policy development continues to evolve at the FERC and in the judiciary. This article also identifies several issues that remain unsettled concerning RTOs and ISOs. There are many issues that are unresolved. Regulators continue to explore what is the best approach to ensuring resource adequacy, including how to adequately compensate generators that are needed for reliability. In addition, Congress and the FERC have sought to prevent energy market manipulation. While the Energy Policy Act of 2005 prohibited energy market manipulation and enhanced the Commission's authority to assess civil penalties for violations, it is unclear what roles ISOs and RTOs should have concerning the prevention of market manipulation and the exercise of market power. These are among the many issues that merit further consideration as the industry continues to rapidly change.