Here are some of sources I use for data analysis and verifications. Excerpts pulled from various websites 'About Us'.
Southwest Power Pool - The SPP Mission: Helping our members work together to keep the lights on, today and in the future. SPP is about more than power. We're about the power of relationships. SPP is a regional transmission organization (RTO): a nonprofit corporation mandated by the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission to ensure reliable supplies of power, adequate transmission infrastructure and competitive wholesale electricity prices on behalf of its members.
SPP was founded in 1941 when eleven regional power companies pooled their resources to keep Arkansas’ Jones Mill powered around the clock in support of critical, national defense needs.More than 75 years later, we’re proud the SPP of today still reflects our early principles of collaboration in the interest of providing a critical service for the good of our region.
Today, SPP oversees the bulk electric grid and wholesale power market in the central United States on behalf of a diverse group of utilities and transmission companies in 17 states. As an RTO, we ensure the reliable supply of power, adequate transmission infrastructure, and competitive wholesale electricity prices for a 552,000-square-mile region, including more than 60,000 miles of high-voltage transmission lines in the Eastern Interconnection.
Through our portfolio of Western Energy Services, we also provide contract-based services like reliability coordination and administration of a real-time balancing market to customers in the Western Interconnection.
Our staff of more than 600 professionals works proudly and diligently to ensure almost 19 million people across our service territories have electricity when they need it.
Southwest Power Pool dates to 1941, when 11 regional power companies joined to keep an Arkansas aluminum factory powered around the clock to meet critical defense needs. After the war, SPP's Executive Committee decided the organization should be retained to maintain electric reliability and coordination. After the Northeast power interruption in 1965, other reliability councils were organized. In 1968, SPP joined 12 other entities to form what became the North American Electric Reliability Corporation (NERC). SPP incorporated as an Arkansas nonprofit organization in 1994. The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) approved SPP as a Regional Transmission Organization in 2004. SPP expanded its RTO operations in 2015 to serve all or parts of 14 states. In 2019, it launched the first of its Western Energy Services, Western Reliability Coordination, expanding its service territory to encompass parts of 17 states. The company is based in Little Rock, Arkansas, and has about 600 employees.
SPP is one of nine independent system operators (ISO) and RTOs in North America. SPP is mandated by FERC to ensure reliable supplies of power, adequate transmission infrastructure and competitive wholesale prices of electricity. ISOs/RTOs are the "air-traffic controllers" of the electric power grid. ISOs/RTOs do not own the power grid; they independently operate the grid minute-by-minute to ensure that power gets to customers and to eliminate power shortages. SPP provides a robust portfolio of services to customers in 17 states, including:
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- Reliability Coordination: SPP monitors power flow throughout our footprint and coordinates regional response in emergency situations or blackouts. SPP's reliability coordinator responsibilities are described in the SPP Reliability Coordinator Reliability Plan. https://youtu.be/fUCWbQpZGUw
- Tariff Administration: SPP provides "one-stop shopping" for use of the region's transmission lines and independently administers an Open Access Transmission Tariff with consistent rates and terms. SPP processes about 90,000 transmission service requests per year, and SPP's 2018 transmission settlement transactions totaled $4.47 billion.
- Regional Scheduling: SPP ensures that the amount of power sent is coordinated and matched with power received.
- Transmission Expansion Planning: SPP's planning processes seek to identify system limitations, develop transmission upgrade plans, and track project progress to ensure timely completion of system reinforcements.
- Market Operations: SPP's Integrated Marketplace is the mechanism through which we facilitate the sale and purchase of electricity to ensure cost-effective electric reliability throughout a 14-state region in the Eastern Interconnection. Since the marketplace launched in 2014, it has reduced the cost of electricity in our region by more than $3 billion, providing market participants hundreds of millions of dollars in net savings annually. The Western Energy Imbalance Service (WEIS) Market will launch in 2021 and provide customers in the Western Interconnection the benefits of a real-time balancing market.
- Training: SPP offers continuing education for operations personnel at SPP and throughout the region. In 2019, SPP provided 38,578 training hours to 207 organizations, including courses on reliability and operations, train-the-trainer, Integrated Marketplace, and transmission settlements. Additionally, SPP awarded 27,100 NERC Continuing Education hours to 40 member organizations and staff.
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Electric Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT) manages the flow of electric power to more than 26 million Texas customers -- representing about 90 percent of the state’s electric load. As the independent system operator for the region, ERCOT schedules power on an electric grid that connects more than 46,500 miles of transmission lines and 680+ generation units. It also performs financial settlement for the competitive wholesale bulk-power market and administers retail switching for 8 million premises in competitive choice areas. ERCOT is a membership-based 501(c)(4) nonprofit corporation, governed by a board of directors and subject to oversight by the Public Utility Commission of Texas and the Texas Legislature. Its members include consumers, cooperatives, generators, power marketers, retail electric providers, investor-owned electric utilities, transmission and distribution providers and municipally owned electric utilities.
Click on the following links to explore more about ERCOT:
Midcontinent Independent System Operator (MISO) is an independent, not-for-profit organization that delivers safe, cost-effective electric power across 15 U.S. states and the Canadian province of Manitoba. MISO is committed to reliable, non-discriminatory operation of the bulk power transmission system and collaborating with all stakeholders to create cost-effective and innovative solutions for our changing industry. MISO operates one of the world’s largest energy markets with more than $29 billion in annual gross market energy transactions.
MISO exists to provide an independent platform for efficient regional energy markets. Since 2001, we have fostered wholesale electric competition in the region, created greater system reliability and established coordinated, value-based regional planning. Learn more about how a simple vision changed the way the energy industry operates.
Our cornerstones of customer service, effective communication and operational excellence anchor our mission to work collaboratively and transparently with our stakeholders to enable reliable delivery of low-cost energy through efficient, innovative operations and planning. Learn how we demonstrate our mission through our Strategic Plan.
Video: MISO in 90 Seconds
PJM Interconnection is a regional transmission organization (RTO) that coordinates the movement of wholesale electricity in all or parts of Delaware, Illinois, Indiana, Kentucky, Maryland, Michigan, New Jersey, North Carolina, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Tennessee, Virginia, West Virginia and the District of Columbia.
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- Acting as a neutral, independent party, PJM operates a competitive wholesale electricity market and manages the high-voltage electricity grid to ensure reliability for more than 65 million people.
- PJM’s long-term regional planning process provides a broad, interstate perspective that identifies the most effective and cost-efficient improvements to the grid to ensure reliability and economic benefits on a system-wide basis.
- An independent Board oversees PJM’s activities. Effective governance and a collaborative stakeholder process help PJM achieve its vision: “To be the electric industry leader – today and tomorrow – in reliable operations, efficient wholesale markets, and infrastructure development.”
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Learn about The Value of Markets
PJM began in 1927 when three utilities, realizing the benefits and efficiencies possible by interconnecting to share their generating resources, formed the world’s first continuing power pool. Additional utilities joined in 1956, 1965 and 1981. Throughout this time, PJM was operated by a department of one member utility.
In 1962, PJM installed its first online computer to control generation. PJM completed its first energy management system (EMS) in 1968. The EMS is the information technology system that makes it possible to monitor transmission grid operations in real time. In 1996, PJM launched its first website to provide its members with current system information. PJM began the transition to an independent, neutral organization in 1993 when the PJM Interconnection Association was formed to administer the power pool. In 1997, PJM became a fully independent organization. At that time, membership was opened to non-utilities, and an independent Board of Managers was elected. On April 1, 1997, PJM opened its first bid-based energy market. Later that year, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) approved PJM as the nation’s first fully functioning independent system operator (ISO). ISOs operate, but do not own, transmission systems in order to provide open access to the grid for non-utility users. Later, the FERC encouraged the formation of regional transmission organizations (RTOs) to operate the transmission system in multi-state areas and to advance the development of competitive wholesale power markets. PJM became the nation’s first fully functioning RTO in 2002.
From 2002 through 2005, PJM integrated a number of utility transmission systems into its operations. They included Allegheny Power and Rockland Electric in 2002; Commonwealth Edison, American Electric Power and Dayton Power & Light in 2004; and Duquesne Light and Dominion in 2005. In 2011, American Transmission Systems, Inc., a transmission affiliate of FirstEnergy, and Cleveland Public Power were integrated into PJM. In 2012, Duke Energy Ohio and Duke Energy Kentucky joined PJM, and in 2013, East Kentucky Power Cooperative integrated into PJM. These integrations expanded the number and diversity of resources available to meet consumer demand for electricity and increased the benefits of PJM’s wholesale electricity market.
California Independent System Operator (ISO) maintains reliability on one of the largest and most modern power grids in the world, and operates a transparent, accessible wholesale energy market. The organization works diligently around the clock to meet the electricity needs of consumers, while increasing the amount of renewable energy to usher in the clean, green grid of the future. As the only independent grid operator in the western U.S., the ISO grants equal access to nearly 26,000 circuit miles of transmission lines and coordinates competing and diverse energy resources into the grid where it is distributed to consumers. It also operates a competitive wholesale power market designed to promote a broad range of resources at lower prices.
Every five minutes, the ISO forecasts electrical demand and dispatches the lowest cost generator to meet demand while ensuring enough transmission capacity for delivery of power.
The ISO opened its two California control centers in 1998 as the state restructured its wholesale electricity industry. While utilities still own transmission assets, the ISO controls the routing of electrons, maximizing transmission system efficiency and generation resources, and supervising maintenance of the lines. As the nerve center for the power grid, the ISO matches buyers and sellers of electricity, facilitating over 28,000 market transactions every day to ensure enough power is on hand to meet demand.
NYISO is the New York Independent System Operator — the organization responsible for managing New York’s electric grid and its competitive wholesale electric marketplace. We do not generate power or own transmission lines, but we work with power producers, utility companies, and stakeholders to provide power to meet New Yorkers’ electricity needs on a daily, hourly, and minute-to-minute basis. We are committed to a fair, transparent market system because it helps us deliver the lowest cost wholesale power solutions.
The NYISO is charged with reliably operating New York’s power grid, meeting the most stringent standards in the nation, under strict regulatory oversight. The NYISO plans the power system for the future, over one, five and ten-year studies, to maintain long term reliability, reduce congestion on the transmission system, and meet public policy needs calling for new transmission, such as lines to bring renewable resources to customers. The NYISO administers markets and maintains reliability openly and transparently, providing data, analyses, and information pertaining to New York’s power system to policymakers, stakeholders, and the general public.
The NYISO was formed in 1999 – but its origins began much earlier, based on New York’s need for a reliable electric system. After the Northeast Blackout of 1965, New York’s seven investor-owned utility companies established the New York Power Pool (NYPP) to coordinate the reliable operation of their respective systems, which was later joined by the New York Power Authority. For more than three decades, the NYPP balanced electricity supply and demand, maintained transmission voltage, monitored system contingencies, managed operating reserves, and dispatched generation—many of the same tasks the NYISO performs today.
After the restructuring of the electric industry in the 1990s, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) began the process of opening access to transmission lines for competitors to buy and sell power, and separating generation, transmission, and distribution services. To provide fair and open access to power, FERC recommended the formation of independent entities to manage energy transmission. At the same time, the New York State Public Service Commission (PSC) established retail electric competition to allow customers to choose their electric supplier. The PSC supported the formation of competitive wholesale markets as the basis of retail choice, and approved restructuring plans by which utilities divested most of their power plants to competitive generation companies.In 1997, the NYPP filed a proposal with FERC to form an independent system operator (NYISO). Upon approval from FERC, the NYISO officially took control of New York’s electric power system on December 1, 1999, with a charge to design, deploy, administer, and monitor New York’s wholesale electricity marketplace.
We manage the flow of electricity throughout New York to ensure it’s produced in sufficient quantities, and transmitted where it needs to go — exactly when it’s needed. This involves:
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- Balancing the available supply of power, every six seconds, from hundreds of power plants over thousands of miles of transmission lines.
- Matching offers from energy producers with consumer utility demand to supply power for the state as efficiently and cost-effectively as possible.
- Overseeing the delivery of power from generators to the utility companies that serve millions of New York electricity consumers 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.
- Evaluating system needs for the future.
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The NYISO works around the clock to sustain and enhance regional reliability, plan a more effective and efficient power system for the future, and provide objective information and data to policymakers, stakeholders, and investors pertaining to New York’s power system and electric infrastructure.
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- Grid operation: Every minute of every day, we coordinate and direct the flow of electricity over the region's high-voltage transmission system.
- Market administration: We design, run, and oversee the billion-dollar markets that attract a large and diverse mix of participants to buy and sell wholesale electricity at the most competitive prices.
- Power system planning: We do the studies, analyses, and planning to make sure New England's electricity needs will be met over the next 10 years.
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While electricity is a basic necessity, it is also a commodity—a product that is produced, sold, and transported for profit by hundreds of companies. And like most commodities, electricity is sold on both a wholesale and retail level. In New England, wholesale electricity is bought and sold two ways:
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- Through contracts between individual buyers and sellers
- In markets managed by the ISO that establish prices for wholesale electricity products and services through competitive bids
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The region’s interrelated suite of competitive markets work together to ensure the constant availability of competitively priced electricity for the region’s 14.8 million residents. Hundreds of companies participate in these markets, buying and selling billions of dollars’ worth of electric power and related products annually. The ISO’s financial independence from companies doing business in the marketplace is crucial to making sure the markets are fair and competitive.
The products traded in New England’s wholesale electricity markets comprise three major categories:
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- Energy markets for buying and selling day-to-day wholesale electric power
- A capacity market for ensuring long-term system reliability
- Ancillary services for ensuring short-term system reliability
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I use SPP, ERCOT, MISO, PJM, CAISO, NYISO, and NEISO for various electric wholesale pricing.