Merchant transmission

Summary form only given, as follows. Demands on the transmission system have dramatically increased in recent years with the spread of wholesale and retail competition in the United States. The rapid growth of wholesale electricity trading has fueled increased requests for transmission service. This paper presents figures that illustrate the dramatic annual increase in wholesale transactions between power marketers and wholesale consumers since wholesale market restructuring began in the electric power industry in the mid 1990s. This increase is significant since, unlike utility sales between generation and (especially, affiliated or formerly affiliated) distribution/retail sales entities, sales by power marketers are often transacted over longer distances between regional markets.