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Bank Of America Investment Long before swaths of Canada and the Northeast were darkened by power failures, federal regulators and industry officials raised red flags about the reliability of service in the Midwest, where the blackout originated and oversight of the grid is fractured.

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Investment Opportunity The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission expressed concerns more than a year ago when several Midwestern utilities asked to join a Northeastern power pool rather than the local equivalent, a move that could make managing the flow of electricity and information there -- and with neighboring regions -- more difficult.

In 2001, the general counsel of the North American Electric Reliability council declared, "The question is not whether, but when, the next major failure of the grid will occur." With the growth of technology and the relative affluence of the 1980s and'90s, there should have been more investment in upgrading the grid's infrastructure. Under deregulation, utilities have made inadequate investments in transmission lines and overall electric generation. Meanwhile, governments, state and federal, continue in Richardson's words, to argue over "who will be responsible for regulating the interstate grid."

Banc Of America Investment The fundamental problem that worried FERC in the Midwest is actually more widespread, the result of a nationwide power network that has been interconnected piece by piece over decades, leaving weaknesses and gaps in controlling the grid.

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Banking Investment ``Things are not one size fits all,'' said Jay Apt, executive director of the Electricity Industry Center at Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh.

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Investment Solution Strategic ``What hasn't been settled,'' he added, ``is which business model works best in which region and which regulatory environment works best.''

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Investment Banking Services Regulators' concern in the Midwest arose when several utilities, including American Electric Power, Dayton Power & Light and Commonwealth Edison, sought participation in the PJM Interconnection of Norristown, Pa.

Bank Investment FERC commissioners questioned whether the region would be better served if these power providers joined the nascent local grid operator, the Midwest Independent Service Operator. Usually, regional transmission organizations are arranged by geography. But in this model, more than one regional group would operate in a given territory.

Alternative Investment ``The problem here is that they literally overlap each other,'' said Frank Gaffney, consultant at the engineering firm RW Beck in Orlando, Fla.

Online Investment Services The complexities are not insurmountable, Gaffney said, but they ``can create an awful lot of issues not only with reliability but with how the markets (interact) with one another.''

Accompany Essential Investment Some Midwestern energy executives also concluded the market would be better served if just one agency were in charge of overseeing it.

Investment Company Ronald Jackups, vice president of electric system operations for Cinergy Services, expressed just such concerns in an affidavit filed with FERC on July 2, 2002.

Investment Management Solution Allowing the Midwest utilities to join the Pennsylvania-based operation would create ``a patchwork of companies with a very long, complex seam,'' Jackups wrote, referring to the area where electricity moves from the control of one grid operator to another.

Investment Management Services ``This may limit the ability of the coordinators to optimally manage and resolve reliability issues,'' Jackups added.

Guide Investment Stock However, the North American Electric Reliability Council concluded that reliability would not suffer and, on July 17, FERC dropped the issue. This paved the way for the midwestern companies to join PJM instead of MISO, with the hope that by late 2004 the two organizations would function as seamlessly as a ``common market.''

Investment Manual Solution So far, none of the midwestern power companies have actually been integrated into PJM's system. But the controversy has been stoked by the Aug. 14 blackout, which killed power in eight states and parts of Canada. Some experts believe the outage could have been further contained if the utilities were in better communication with one another.

Investment Stock ``Communication in the Midwest is probably not at the level where you can push the system at the level it has been pushed,'' said Rich Rosen, senior research director at the Tellus Institute, a non-profit research and consulting firm based in Boston.

Essential Investment Solution ``MISO is new and just getting organized,'' he added. ``It probably doesn't have adequate communication with PJM and the New York ISO.''

Citicorp Investment Services In the wake of the blackout, PJM announced its intention to examine ``the reliability plans associated with the evolution of energy markets in the mid-western region.''

Fool Guide Investment Motley PJM affirmed it would still work with Commonwealth Edison, American Electric Power, The Dayton Power & Light Co. and Dominion to join the PJM market, however.

Fidelity Investment Services Although issues facing the Midwest are somewhat unique, power operators across the country are making changes in how the grid is run.

Investment Management Out West, for example, officials at the California Independent System Operator are trying to mesh its market design with two regional power pools still in the works: WestConnect RTO, which would cover parts of the Southwest and Rocky Mountain region, and RTO West, which would extend from the northwestern U.S. into Canada.

Francisco Investment San The goal of establishing better communication and planning between regions led to the creation of The Seams Steering Group of the Western Interconnection. The non-profit group's objectives include improving competition and eliminating inter-regional congestion.

Mellon Investment Services ``A lack of continuity creates confusion'' in the scheduling, pricing and transmission of electricity, said Steve Greenleaf, director of regulatory policy at the California ISO.

Finance Investment ``When you're trading power across the seams you want it, to the most practical sense possible, so that systems are aligned,'' Greenleaf said. ``That way one party can do a transaction from the Pacific Northwest down to the Southwest without seeming to go through three different systems.''

Investment Manual Science Associated Press - 8/25/2003

Topic: Energy

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