Blackstone Technology Group has announced the successful implementation of the Resource Interconnection Management System (RIMS) for the California Independent System Operator (California ISO). California ISO is tasked with operating the wholesale energy market and managing the flow of electricity through an extensive network of transmission lines that traverse the nation’s most populated state. California ISO’s control area is one of the largest in the world.

Looking to update and streamline business processes and improve technology used to manage critical large-scale, multi-year transmission and generation facility projects, the ISO “was faced with the challenge of meeting FERC mandates and effectively coordinating hundreds of projects with transmission owners and interconnection customers,” said Armando Perez, vice president of Planning and Infrastructure for California ISO.

The Resource Interconnection Management System (RIMS) is a Web-based application that helps the ISO track and manage the status of transmission and generation projects on the ISO-controlled grid as well as coordinate dependencies with external customers. RIMS will allow the ISO to meet FERC-required processes and provide ISO staff, transmission owners and interconnection customers a collaborative workspace to not only track and manage generation and transmission projects, but provide more direct and immediate project-specific communications between geographically separated users.

Key features of the RIMS application include:

• Common access to a common centralized resource interconnection database
• Dashboard view of all Transmission and Generation Interconnection Projects
• Automatic notifications to users regarding action requests and reminders
• Auto-generation of FERC-mandated reports and notices