Desert Southwest region to study establishing an independent system operator.FORT WORTH, Texas--(BUSINESS WIRE)--March 21, 1997--A group of nine Southwestern electric utilities has agreed to investigate the feasibility of forming an Independent System Operator for the region. The Desert Southwest Transmission and Reliability Operator (Desert STAR) would be focused on ensuring reliability, nondiscriminatory open-access, independent governance and representing all industry customer sectors during the transition to a more competitive wholesale and retail marketplace for electric service. Initial members of this group include: Arizona Electric Power Cooperative, Arizona Public Service Arizona Public Service Company is the largest electric utility in Arizona and the principal subsidiary of publicly-traded S&P 500 member Pinnacle West Capital Corporation (NYSE: PNW), which in turn had been formerly named AZP Group Company, El Paso Electric Company, Nevada Power Company Nevada Power Company is a Las Vegas-based company that produces, distributes and sells electricity in southern portion of the U.S. state of Nevada. As of 2005, Nevada Power had over 700,000 electric customers in parts of three Nevada counties creating a service area of more than , Public Service Company of New Mexico, Salt River Project, Texas-New Mexico Power Company, Tucson Electric Power Tucson Electric Power (TEP) is an electric utility company serving southern Arizona in the United States. It is a subsidiary of the UniSource Energy Corporation. Tucson Electric Park, a baseball stadium on Tucson's south side, is named for TEP. Company and the Western Area Power Administration-Desert Southwest Region. In order to encourage a broad spectrum of involvement in the feasibility study, all interested parties are invited to participate. Public forums to discuss the idea will be held at 2 p.m. on April 4 in Las Vegas, Nev.; at 9 a.m. on April 7 in Tucson, Ariz.; at 9 a.m. on April 8 in El Paso, Texas; at 9 a.m. on April 9 in Phoenix, Ariz.; and at 9 a.m. on April 11 in Albuquerque, N.M. "The group, in conjunction with other interested entities, will study the establishment of a regional entity with the responsibility of ensuring reliable transmission system operation in the Desert Southwest region while providing nondiscriminatory access to the transmission grid," said Michael Raezer, project manager for Desert STAR and manager of Fuels and Resource Planning for Tucson Electric Power Company. "Desert STAR would be responsible for security, reservation, scheduling and congestion The condition of a network when there is not enough bandwidth to support the current traffic load. congestion - When the offered load of a data communication path exceeds the capacity. management for the regional transmission system." Two ISOs already are under consideration in the West. California is designing its ISO (1) See ISO speed. (2) (International Organization for Standardization, Geneva, Switzerland, www.iso.ch) An organization that sets international standards, founded in 1946. The U.S. member body is ANSI. and in the Pacific Northwest, the Independent Grid Operator is in the preapproval stage. The formation of ISOs is in accordance with the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) is the United States federal agency with jurisdiction over electricity sales, wholesale electric rates, hydroelectric licensing, natural gas pricing, and oil pipeline rates. Rule 888 and 889 requiring open access to transmission systems for all users on a basis comparable to that which utilities provide to themselves. Implementation of Desert STAR would be subject to approval by the appropriate regulatory entities. The feasibility study is expected to be complete in approximately six months. The new ISO only would affect the New Mexico portion of TNP's service territory. The company already is part of a Texas ISO operated by the Electric Reliability Council of Texas  The Electric Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT) formed in 1970, as the successor to the Texas Interconected System (TIS). . TNP provides community-based electric service to 85 cities and more than 218,000 customers in Texas and New Mexico. It is the principal wholly owned subsidiary Wholly Owned Subsidiary A subsidiary whose parent company owns 100% of its common stock. Notes: In other words, the parent company owns the company outright and there are no minority owners. of TNP Enterprises, Inc. (NYSE NYSE See: New York Stock Exchange :TNP). CONTACT: Texas-New Mexico Power Co., Fort Worth June Norman, APR, 817/737-1328 http://www.tnpe.com email: tnpga2@tnpe.com |
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