White Paper | Stretched to the Breaking Point: RTOs and the Clean Energy Transition
It has become an article of faith among many in the energy policy world that the Regional Transmission Organization model is not just the preferred way to achieve a clean energy grid transition – but the only reasonable way to do so. When confronted with the problems that increasingly bedevil RTOs, these advocates either minimize the threats or suggest a series of modest market tweaks will fix them. This white paper challenges these orthodoxies. Authored by two experts who have collectively spent decades working with, managing and regulating RTOs, the paper explains why the cracks in the foundations of RTOs are not just cosmetic. It also explores why regulators and the RTOs themselves need to reassess wholesale markets from the ground up as the electricity delivery system transitions to a grid much different from the one of the past.