The California Independent System Operator Corp. (ISO) approved the addition of two public power utilities to participate in its power grid beginning in 2013, the only open market power grid in the Western United States.
Valley Electric and its wholly-owned subsidiary Valley Electric Transmission Association, LLC will be the first Nevada-based utility to join the ISO. The Nevada Office of Energy submitted a letter of support into the public record.
The ISO's board also approved the City of Colton, California's request to join its grid. Colton has operated its own municipal utility since 1895 and serves 19,000 customers. The utility has a peak load of 90 MW and owns diverse generation resources in California, Arizona, New Mexico and Nevada. Joining the ISO grid allows Colton to acquire transmission access to renewable resources in California and the Southwest in order to California's green power goals.
With the addition of two new members, the ISO now has eight municipal utilities that have turned operation control of their transmission to the ISO to manage. The cities of Anaheim, Azusa, Pasadena, Riverside, Vernon and Banning are current transmission members of the ISO.
For more information, visit www.caiso.com.
