MISO lets RFP for Independent Market Monitor

The Midwest Independent Transmission System Operator, Inc. (MISO) announced last week that that ISO has issued a Request For Proposal (RFP) for an independent third-party market monitor. The independent market monitor will work with the Midwest ISO staff, the transmission owners, suppliers of generation, federal and state regulators, and it will also include a broad range of market participants, consumer interest groups and environmentalists. The Midwest ISO's market monitor must demonstrate the following characteristics:

• Independence
  
• Objectivity
  
• Non-discriminatory monitoring
  
• Ability to collect proprietary data without compromising confidentiality

"Using a third-party entity will ensure all participants that the markets the Midwest ISO operates in are analyzed consistently, fairly and without prejudice," said Matthew C. Cordaro, president and CEO of the Midwest ISO.

The monitor's scope will include monitoring energy and capacity markets, generation market power indices, energy imbalance markets and congestion management mechanisms. The monitor will also collect data and analyze markets for potential indicators of market power such as withholding capacity or bidding anomalies.

"The operator will evaluate market participants to detect behavior that adversely affects the MISO's ability to provide reliable, efficient and non-discriminatory transmission service," Cordaro said.

Proposals must be submitted to the Midwest ISO no later than Nov. 15, 2000. The Midwest ISO will announce its top candidates in mid-December with selection, subject to board approval, made by mid-January.

The Midwest ISO is the nation's largest independent transmission system operator and will operate as the interface between power suppliers (generators and marketers) and local distribution companies, which ultimately deliver power to end users. In return, under an agency agreement, MISO will collect revenues under its tariff on behalf of the participating transmission owners and turn these revenues over to the transmission owners.

Utilities with more than 52,000 miles of transmission lines, 78,000 megawatts of electric generation and about $8 billion in installed assets are participating in the MISO. The transmission owners who have signed the MISO agreement are Alliant Energy, Ameren, American Transmission Company (Milwaukee, WI) Central Illinois Light Company (CILCO), Cinergy, Commonwealth Edison, Hoosier Energy Rural Electric Cooperative, Illinois Power, LG&E Energy Corp., Madison Gas & Electric, Xcel Energy (formerly Northern States Power), Southern Illinois Power Cooperative, Southern Indiana Gas & Electric, Wabash Valley Power Association, Wisconsin Electric and Wisconsin Public Service Resources Corporation. A copy of the RFP is available at www.midwestiso.org

Edited by Stephen Heiser