Impact of regulatory compliance on control center operations

Transmission open access was mandated by FERC Orders 888 and 889 which became effective on January 1, 1997. Transmission owners and operators were required to provide transmission access to all users of transmission system on a comparable basis as they are using themselves. Order 889 also required functional separation of transmission operations and wholesale merchant functions. Transmission service providers were required to file with FERC open access transmission tariff (OATT) that should be conforming with the FERC pro-forma tariff so that terms and conditions used for their own use are the same as those applicable to other users. Transmission providers were required to establish open access same time information system (OASIS) for exchange of transmission information and processing of requests for transmission service. This order impacted control center operations significantly. This required new capabilities for control centers for tracking the transmission information and also to share information with customers. This resulted in new way of doing business and more complex control center operations.