Western grid panel commits to expanding commercial role

Portland, Maine (Platts)--23Aug2005

The Western Electricity Coordinating Council (WECC) plans to expand its
grid oversight role across the western United States to include commercial and
business practices, a spokesman said Tuesday.
     The WECC already handles many reliability and resource adequacy chores,
but has decided to take on commercial issues, mainly surrounding the planning
of the region's transmission system, after mulling its options following the
release of a White Paper in April, he said.
     WECC's Market Interface Committee is now taking comments on the potential
scope of the WECC's new activities. The proposal to expand WECC's oversight of
commercial practices on issues like "rate pancaking" and congestion management
grew out of a white paper from the Western Assessment Group, an ad hoc group
of industry representatives. 
     The group found that rather than creating a new organization to handle
commercial issues, the best option would be to expand WECC's scope. Currently,
there is no interconnection-wide group that addresses commercial issues, 
according to the MIC. WECC is to vote in April on changes to its bylaws so the
council can take on the commercial oversight tasks.

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