9527626 Wu Recent moves to open up electric power transmission networks to foster generation competition and customer choice have touched off a debate over how the transmission system should be restructured in order to meet the goal. the opposing sides of this debate are now commonly known as the bilateral model and the poolco model. Both models resort to conventional centralized operation in dealing with the shared resources of an integrated transmission network. The conventional operation paradigm was developed in a different era for electric utilities operated as regulated monopolies. A new operation paradigm is needed for a restructured industry that encourages efficient competition and at the same time maintains necessary coordination to guarantee a high standard of reliability. Coordination does not mean centralization. There are indeed two aspects of coordination, namely, information structure and decision-making authority. We propose to examine the requirements for coordination in the new operating paradigm for reliable (secure) and economic operation of power systems along these two dimensions. It is believed that the decision mechanism regarding economics and reliability (security) of system operation should be separated. Economic decision should be carried out by private multilateral trades among generators and consumers. The functions of reliability should be coordinated through the power system operator with proper information structure to guide generators and consumers to make profitable trades that meet the secure transmission loading limits. The communications, computing and control infrastructure necessary to support the proposed model will be investigated. ***
