Stephen G. Whitley
President and Chief Executive Officer
New York Independent System Operator
Stephen G. Whitley, President and Chief Executive Officer of the New York Independent System Operator (NYISO), is a veteran of the energy industry with extensive experience in bulk power system planning and operations. He joined
the NYISO in July 2008.
Before coming to the NYISO, Mr. Whitley served for seven years as Senior Vice President and Chief Operating Officer of ISO New England (ISO-NE). He was responsible for system planning, system operations, market operations, settlements, customer service, and North American Electric Reliability Corporation/Northeast Power Coordinating Council (NERC/NPCC) compliance for the six-state region. He previously served as ISO-NE Vice President, System Operations, from 2000 to 2001. In New England, he lead the establishment of a regional planning process which resulted in the construction of new Extra-High Voltage (EHV) transmission in all six New England states and new interconnections with New York State and New Brunswick.
Prior to his tenure at ISO-NE, he completed a 30-year career with the Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) where he last served as General Manager, Electric System Operations, of the Transmission Power Supply Group and was responsible for control area operations, power supply, economic dispatch, system protection, transmission security, and services and dispatching for the seven-state,
80,000 square-mile TVA service territory.
Mr. Whitley is the 2010 Chair of the Independent System Operator/Regional Transmission Organization Council (IRC), which represents the 10 ISO/RTOs in North America serving two-thirds of electricity consumers in the United States and more than 50 percent of Canada's population.
In October 2009, he was selected to chair the Executive Committee of the Eastern Interconnection Planning Collaborative (EIPC). The Eastern Interconnection includes electric systems serving most of the United States and Canada from the Rocky Mountains to the Atlantic coast.
He is also a member of the Electric Power Research Institute (EPRI) Power Delivery Executive Committee. During his career, he has served as a member of the Northeast Power Coordinating Council (NPCC) Board of Directors, the Executive Committee of CIGRE (International Council on Large Electric Systems) U.S. National Committee, and he has served on numerous North American Reliability Corporation (NERC), NPCC, and SERC reliability committees.
He earned a Bachelor of Science degree in Electrical Engineering from
Tennessee Technological University prior to beginning his electricity industry career with the TVA.
Mr. Whitley is a retired Colonel in the U. S. Army Reserve and the former commanding officer of the 3397th Garrison Support Unit, Fort Campbell, Kentucky. He retired after a distinguished 30-year career, which included active duty in Operation Desert Storm in 1990 and 1991.
