Coalition inks management agreement
Dayton Business Journal - by Doug Buchanan DBJ Contributor
The electric utilities in the proposed Alliance regional-transmission organization have completed a management agreement with the operator of Britain's electric grid that clears one more hurdle for the deregulation plan.
The Alliance RTO companies, including Dayton Power & Light Co., American Electric Power Co. in Columbus and Akron's FirstEnergy Corp., hope to turn over operation of the region's electric grid to a for-profit company called Alliance Transco LLC on Dec. 15.
The utilities' plan is pending before regulators with the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, which has ordered energy-generating utilities across the country to give up control of the power grid to independent entities as part of deregulation efforts.
The Alliance plan calls for transmission lines in 11 states between Michigan, Missouri and North Carolina to be turned over to Alliance Transco, which would be managed by National Grid Group Plc, the company that operates the high-voltage transmission network in Britain and Wales.
Under the agreement filed with regulators Nov. 1, National Grid will contribute $1 billion to the Alliance to acquire transmission assets and for start-up costs. National Grid also committed to continuing development of an inter-RTO coordination agreement and a single pricing structure with other RTOs.
The Alliance filed an initial business plan with FERC in August but the commission has yet to approve it.
"FERC approval of the Alliance Transco will send a positive signal to other potential investors and support the development of the competitive electricity marketplace," Stan Szwed, a FirstEnergy vice president who's chairman of the Alliance Management Committee, said in a statement.
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