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VELCO, the nation's first ever "transmission only" company, was formed in 1956 as the most efficient solution for moving newly available St. Lawrence power into Vermont. In response to rising demand for services and the oil embargo of the early seventies, VELCO's role grew to include acting as the agent for out- of state power contracts for all of Vermont's utilities. Assuming this responsibility saved money and substantially increased reliability through newly interconnected operations. Later, our company was specifically tasked to serve as the representative of Vermont's combined utilities at what was the precursor to today's ISO-New England. VELCO gave these utilities a voice where individually they would never have been heard. Lastly, it was VELCO's construction of a new converter in Highgate that made interconnected operations with Hydro Quebec a possibility and so played a role in securing the HQ power contract. Today our evolution continues as we provide leadership and expertise to become Vermont's transmission reliability resource. The initial 224-mile 115 kV VELCO system was placed in service in September 1958. Since that time, VELCO has expanded its facilities and services as required by the needs of its participants and the evolution of the industry. Currently, its transmission system consists of 610* miles of transmission lines, 34 substations and a 200 MW back-to-back HVDC Converter.** To monitor and control this system VELCO uses an extensive fiber optic communication network.