Posted on 06/07/2004 9:44:25 AM PDT by Robert357
From regional emails on power situation * CALIFORNIA: Terry Winter and Elena Schmid, the two top dogs of the Cal ISO, unexpectedly quit on June 1, giving no reasons. Winters had run the ISO since '99 (in '02, his total compensation was $776,426). Schmidt "was pivotal in launching the . . . ISO's post energy crisis market redesign initiative."
Jeff Tranen, Winter's predecessor ('97-'99), will be resurrected to run the ISO until a new guy is found.
Four days later, on June 5, the Cal ISO issued a 34-page report (electronic copy available upon request) responding to a *spring '02* state senate investigation of manipulation in the California energy market. The senate committee asked the ISO (in '02!) to respond to allegations that it had improperly asked a unit of the state Dep't of Water Resources to schedule fictitious loads.
The ISO quickly concluded that nothing untoward had occurred, but told the committee it would do an in-depth review (and hired outside lawyers, consultants and FERC experts to help). This overdue report is an "unusually candid critique" that admits that some ISO employees were "less than forthcoming" in dealing with the senate committee.
[Ed. note: While no one will say so, my guess is that Winter and Schmid were fired, for at least two reasons. First, the report essentially admits that seven or so ISO employees lied under oath to the senate committee, and Winter will pay for that. Second, MD02 will cost upwards of $100 million just to implement (not counting annual costs), and that could not have pleased the board, either.]
Good Luck California!
The source of the information is a regional review of certain transmission issues that I get each week. I experted just a part of the email.
"First, the report essentially admits that seven or so ISO employees lied under oath to the senate committee, and Winter will pay for that."
It appears that some of the black holes created by Herr Davis are being closed and filled in by Arnold.
Click here for news release link
ISO Executives Resign
(Folsom CA) Today, the Board of Governors of the California Independent System Operator (California ISO) accepted the resignation of Terry Winter, Chief Executive Officer. Mr. Winter first joined the California ISO in 1997 as the Chief Operating Officer under CEO Jeff Tranen and he was promoted to the CEO position in 1999. Mr. Winter provided extremely valuable technical expertise during start-up and helped get the organization through the 2000-2001 California energy crisis.
Also resigning today is Elena Schmid, Vice President of Corporate and Strategic Development. Ms. Schmid was pivotal in launching the California ISO’s post energy crisis market redesign initiative. The ISO board is grateful for both Mr. Winter’s and Ms. Schmid’s dedication to the mission of the California ISO, its employees, and California. Effective immediately, Mr. Jeffrey Tranen, former CEO of the California ISO, will assist the California ISO Board of Governors in overseeing the transition until the CEO vacancy is filled. Mr. Tranen brings a wealth of experience to the position as he helped to build the California ISO and served as President of the New England Power Company where he helped to create ISO New England.
Michael Kahn, Chairman of the California ISO Board of Governors stated, “The Board is grateful for the years of commitment and dedication that Mr. Winter and Ms. Schmid have given to the California ISO.”
I see teams changing sides, but we'll see if it's clean.
Unexpected resignations.... yes, very interesting....
Click here for the ISO confession and apology
Perhaps the key lines in the report are found on page 36
For everyone concerned this has been a very painful process. The responsibility for all matters discussed herein lies with the Board, which fully accepts it. Our first obligation is to the people of the State of California to run their grid with integrity and efficiency. By forcing us to introspectively address the ISO’s conduct, Senator Dunn and his committee have done us and the people a significant service.
Then the language on page 28 is also pretty blunt
This Board regrets and apologizes for the unsatisfactory character of the early letters and the piecemeal character of the ISO presentations to the Senate Select Committee on this issue. As discussed in Section IV below, the ISO is committed to implementing strategies to avoid these sorts of problems, including providing greater assistance to our operations staff in formulating responses to Senate inquiries. We also are committed to implementing procedures to formalize our interpretations of the tariff and FERC orders, and timely reflect those interpretations in operating procedures and protocols and operator training.
IV.
MATTERS PERTAINING TO CORPORATE MANAGEMENT AND CULTURE
The outside attorney raised certain corporate culture issues that deserve to be addressed. Specifically, the outside attorney concluded that ISO employees failed to appreciate the concerns expressed by CERS on the November 14, 2001 calls and at other times did not successfully communicate their own positions during those interactions; that ISO has been disrespectful and arrogant in its dealing with market participants; and that ISO takes an inappropriately aggressive stance in its submissions to FERC and its interpretation of FERC orders.
The Board takes these charges seriously and has examined them carefully. Additionally, as noted above, the Board has concluded that at critical junctures in its dealings with the Senate Select Committee, the ISO’s explanations were presented in a manner that was sometimes incomplete, unclear, or otherwise subject to misunderstanding. The effectiveness of ISO systems for implementing and explaining changes in the law and FERC rulings has been drawn into question. Practices, structures, and strategies that may have been necessary in the midst of the energy crisis should be reevaluated now that the situation is more stable.
Gosh, I guess the light of day is shining in!
I think that Grey Davis lead by Example and his irresponsible statements to the press, to FERC and to various power marketing firms was a significant part of why the ISO had a management culture problem. But then again, the voters of California finally got to the root cause of the problem when the recalled Gov. Davis, shortly after he was elected!
I agree in part but the "root cause of the problem" is the formation of ISO itself.
If Davis can, then Arnold can manipulate the ISO to their liking then so can the next nitwit.
"Independant"? HA!
Well said! That is why these kind of organizations and their leaders need to have the light of day shine in on them and that folks need to track what the organizations are doing, especially when they are performing poorly.
P.S. for the record, Senator Dunn is a democrat and was trying to get "more of" the whole story of the California power crisis persented to the public, than just the side that Grey Davis wanted told. It was a shame that so much "spin" and "politics" was trying to hide what was really happening
The issue of the "independence" of the CAISO has never been settled with FERC. FERC backed off last year (for political reason, no doubt), but like you have said many times, the wheels of FERC grind slowly, but they grind exceedingly fine.
An amazing admission of the truth.
Yes, I just sent an email to my US Senator Can't-vote-well. She has just stated her outrage over Enron tapes (I can understand that as it is pretty outrageous language).
I asked Senator Cantwell that if she is serious about her outrage over high Washington state energy prices, then I expect her to ask Senators Boxer and Feinstein to apologize to the people of Washington State for California's role in our high energy prices we are paying up here. I reminded her of some of the Boxer/Feinstein/Grey energy market manipulation rants and how they claimed that they were just the victim, when in fact the state of California's hands were as dirty as many of the other energy marketing firms.
It will be interesting to see if more "amazing admissions of truth" are forthcoming or if we quickly get back to politics as usual.
Just typical DemonicRats business management style!
Twist that knife. He-hehe...
Yes, it was a pleasure to give my senator some quotes from the Cal ISO report and their acceptance of some blame, then tell he r that if she is going after Enron, she should go after Boxer and Feinstein as well as the State of California.
While I don't expect anything from my Senator, as she is a good democratic party "team-player," I do hope that at least one of her staffers talks to a Boxer/Feinstein staffer and says "look at the kind of messages we are getting because of your fellow grandstanding democrats." That would be about as much as I could hope for.
It will probably take them a while to recover, if ever.
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