RTOs
As of 2012 there are ten ISO/RTOs operating in North America:
- Alberta Electric System Operator (AESO)
- California Independent System Operator (CAISO)
- Electric Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT)
- Midwest Independent Transmission System Operator (MISO)
- New Brunswick System Operator (NBSO)
- ISO New England (ISO-NE)
- New York Independent System Operator (NYISO)
- Ontario Independent Electricity System Operator (IESO)
- PJM Interconnection (PJM)
- Southwest Power Pool (SPP)
Non-RTO transmission organizations:
- ColumbiaGrid
- Northern Tier Transmission Group
ColumbiaGrid, a nonprofit corporation, is not a regional transmission organization (RTO) and has no plans to become one, but instead seeks to achieve many of the benefits of an RTO through incremental additions to its functions. ColumbiaGrid was formed after some of its members chose not to continue in efforts to form Grid West, a Northwest evolutionary structure with the ability to add functions and to move toward independent grid management. The ColumbiaGrid members, including the Bonneville Power Administration, several Washington State public utilities and two investor-owned utilities, wanted an organization with more limited functions and no independent ability to change. ColumbiaGrid performs single-utility transmission planning and expansion via an open and transparent process and is also establishing a multi-system OASIS portal. The former Grid West participants who had argued for an eventual RTO, mainly investor-owned utilities and state representatives from Oregon, Idaho, Montana, Wyoming and Utah, formed the Northern Tier Transmission Group (NTTG), a nascent effort open to evolution but initially focused on inexpensive and relatively easy improvements to grid management, including area control error (ACE) diversity interchange, currently underway; transparent methodologies for calculating available transmission capacity; and planning, as required by FERC Order 890.
Read more about this topic: Regional Transmission Organization