Charting a new course

The California Public Utilities Commission issued a decision in December 1995 that the investor-owned electric utility industry in California will be restructured to allow for wholesale and retail competition beginning 1998. Under the plan, and independent system operator will operate, as a single control area, the transmission system. The independent system operator will be responsible for ensuring that schedules for use of the transmission are feasible, operating the transmission system in real time, and settling financially with parties who use the transmission system. It will guarantee open access to the transmission grid, so that no particular group of market participant is favored, wholesale or retail. Through this process, the electric power system is expected to come to better meet the needs of the customers it is intended to serve.