The unbundling and rebundling of transmission and market related functions

Journal Article · Sun Dec 01 04:00:00 EST 1996 · Electricity Journal

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1016/S1040-6190(96)80156-4· OSTI ID:482530

Woolf, F

If generation and transmission are to continue in common hands, transmission ownership must be separated from system operations, necessitating creation of the independent system operator. But this approach can only work if the ISO is truly and totally independent in its role as the gamekeeper of serious market competition and the rules of the game (covering all the ISO functions) are clearly established. In a world where generation, transmission and distribution are restructured or unbundled with the aim of introducing competition at a wholesale and retail level, a number of functions related to system operations must be performed in order to allow the chosen market structure to operate. These functions are the key to putting buyers and sellers together. Indeed, they encompass nearly everything that happens between the power station fence and the customer meter. There has been much analysis of these functions and the services that are derived from them, both in international restructuring and, over the last two years, in North America. In this article the author looks at how transmission and market-related functions have been unbundled and rebundled in an attempt to illustrate some of the factors that should drive decisions as to the optimum grouping of functions and which entities should provide them. In particular the author discusses the separation of transmission ownership from system operations, which is a particular feature of the North American scene in systems where corporate unbundling - i.e., divestiture - of generation and transmission is not being imposed.

• OSTI ID: 482530
• Journal Information: Electricity Journal, Journal Name: Electricity Journal Journal Issue: 10 Vol. 9; ISSN ELEJE4; ISSN 1040-6190
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

29 ENERGY PLANNING, POLICY, AND ECONOMY
COMPETITION
CONTROL
DEREGULATION
ELECTRIC POWER INDUSTRY
MANAGEMENT
POWER DISTRIBUTION SYSTEMS