
OMS History
Federal energy policies throughout the 1990s increased regionalization of the electric industry through the advent of wholesale energy markets and development of Regional Transmission Organizations and Independent System Operators to facilitate fair and open access to the transmission grid. To address the increased workload of following these evolving issues, multi-state organizations of retail utility regulators called Regional State Committees (RSC) were formed to pool the work and increase the influence of the state regulators.
The Organization of MISO States is an RSC that was formed in June of 2003 by the regulators from fourteen Midwestern states and the province of Manitoba that had member utilities in what was then named the Midwest Independent System Operator (MISO). As MISO’s (later changed to Midcontinent Independent System Operator) membership changed, the makeup of OMS did as well. In December 2013, OMS welcomed its five newest members from the south to achieve its current construct when the Entergy Region joined MISO.