Wholesalers elect transition team for New York's ISO

CNY Business Journal (1996+), Apr 23, 1999

ALBANY-New York State's wholesale electric industry (independent generators, power marketers, and their representatives) completed balloting to fill five seats on the New York Independent System Operator (NYISO) Transition Team.

Elected to represent the interests of wholesalers in shepherding control of the state's bulk-power transmission system from the New York Power Pool to the newly chosen board of NYISO were: Aaron Breidenbaugh, Automated Power Exchange (APX); Gina Fedele, Sithe Energies; Howard Fromer, Enron; Hans Mertens, Williams Energy; and John Reese, Independent Power Producers of New York, Inc. (IPPNY).

The companies represent a diversity of interests from within the wholesale power industry, including an energy exchange (APX), two power-marketing companies (Enron and Williams), an independent generator (Sithe), and a trade group representing the interests of the wholesale industry (IPPNY).

The NYISO Transition Team will be responsible for identifying and resolving problems concerning the implementation of the NYISO governance plan currently undergoing final review at the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, and it will assist the board in the selection of a Market Power Advisor. Essentially, it is the role of the Transition Team to trouble shoot the transfer of New York electricity markets from utility control to free-market control. Much of the work is expected to focus on ironing out the specifics of the Locational Based Marginal Pricing system for pricing electricity in the free market. It is expected that the team's work will extend at least through the fall of 1999.

Though this election, announced April 6, applies strictly to wholesalers, the entire Transition Team will be structured as follows:

* five representatives of wholesalers

* five representatives of transmission providers (utilities)

* five representatives of retailers and customers

* one representative of environmental organizations

* one representative of the municipal utilities

* one representative from the state's Department of Public Service staff

In a related development, William J. Museler, executive vice president of the Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA), was selected by the NYISO board as its first president and CEO. Museler was educated at Worcester Polytechnic Institute and Pratt Institute. Before joining the TVA in 1991, he worked at Brookhaven National Laboratory; Combustion Engineering, Inc.; and the Long Island Lighting Company.