CAISO Says It Will Announce MRTU Start in July
It is still unclear when the California Independent System Operator’s long-awaited Market Redesign and Technology Upgrade (MRTU) will take effect, but the CAISO recently suggested it will announce the startup date in July 2008.
Ever since the California energy crisis, the CAISO has worked on designing and implementing a new wholesale power market with features such as locational marginal pricing, financial transmission rights (called congestion revenue rights), and a day-ahead market energy market. The CAISO filed the MRTU proposal with FERC in February 2006, and proposed a market startup date of November 2007. Due to technical issues and ongoing administrative litigation over the details of the market design, the proposed startup date has been delayed several times, first to February 2008, then April 2008, and now again to an unknown time. The latest delay raised the prospect of MRTU not taking effect until next fall, after the high-demand summer season, which the CAISO’s latest announcement appears to confirm.
News z: Gunnar Birgisson