FERC congestion management questions

TUESDAY, OCTOBER 16
Morning Session
Congestion Management and Transmission Rights

1. What form should congestion management mechanisms take and what should be the role of the RTO in managing or operating them?

2. What are the advantages and disadvantages of the LMP approach to congestion management? Of the flow-gate approach? Are other alternatives available?

3. Should transmission rights be tradable? What form should such rights take,how should they be allocated among market participants, and how should secondary markets be structured to facilitate trading of these rights?

4. How should congestion costs be recovered? Should the RTO adopt a market design that requires market participants to pay congestion costs only when such costs are commercially significant, with other congestion costs recovered through an "up-lift" charge? Is such an approach feasible and, if so, what are its advantages and disadvantages?

5. What role should congestion management play in encouraging (e.g., through price signals) efficient investments in new generation and transmission capacity? Should the revenues from congestion management be used to motivate expansion to relieve the congestion? Do existing congestion management programs create disincentives to expansion?