-----Original Message-----
From: 	Yeung, Charles  
Sent:	Wednesday, May 30, 2001 3:12 PM
To:	Presto, Kevin M.; Will, Lloyd; Shapiro, Richard; Steffes, James
Cc:	Novosel, Sarah; Fulton, Donna; Scott, Susan M.; Rodriquez, Andy; Walton, Steve; Ingersoll, Richard
Subject:	FERC Announces Technical Conference on RTO Seams Coordination

On December 15, 2000, EPSA, ELCON, Enron, Reliant and Dynegy filed a request for FERC to hold a technical conference to focus the industry on interregional coordination as prescribed in the RTO Order 2000 Function 8 requirements.  Enron et al were concerned that the RTO initiatives underway were independently developing RTOs with little emphasis on coordination with neighboring business practices.  

At the May 30, 2001 FERC meeting, Chairman Hebert announced this FERC technical conference may be scheduled as early as June.  This is a reversal of the Chairman's earlier resistance to holding a technical conference when he instead favored the RTO filing process to individually address interregional coordination.

The key to the Chairman's change in direction can be attributed to Enron's active participation on the Electronic Scheduling Collaborative (ESC) a non-NERC industry collaborative effort formed to respond to the FERC ANOPR on OASIS Phase II.  

By working through a EPSA/ELCON joint filing in response to the ESC filing, Enron was able to raise awareness of the seams coordination threats to OASIS Phase II development and successfully sway the ESC to file in support of the earlier EPSA/ELCON/Enron/Reliant/Dynegy Request for Technical Conference. 

Govt Affairs will continue to monitor the development of the Technical Conference and provide needed support to resolve inter-RTO seams issues.

Charles Yeung
Govt Affairs NA
713-853-0348