March 2007

Market-based Wholesale Power Rates in Court

Michael Giberson The activist group Public Citizen made its case in federal court Wednesday for a requirement that all wholesale electricity rates be filed in advance and assessed on how reasonable they are, rather than blanket approvals being issued for fluctuating market-based rates in competitive markets. Public Citizen told the US Court of Appeals for …

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Market Monitors in Electric Power Markets, Ii

Michael Giberson Not much analytical work has be published looking at the role of market monitors in regional power markets. One of the few pieces to be published in the trade press was an article by Prof. Robert Michaels in Public Utilities Fortnightly, “Watching the Watchers: Can RTO market monitors really be independent?” Writing in …

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The Role of Market Monitors in Electric Power Networks

Michael Giberson Economists have devoted a great deal of attention to market power in electric power markets in the somewhat general, structural sense, but very little of that work focuses much attention on networked-nature of the industry. The network matters a lot – that’s one of the views well articulated in the Thomas, et al., …

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Fundamentals of Spring Gasoline Price Increases

Lynne Kiesling The following is a post I wrote in March 2004 about the regular, annual, seasonal rise in gasoline prices that always occurs at this time of year. I am reposting it here because it generally still applies, and I am inserting some updated comments in bold below. Being systematic, here are the primary …

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“Markets for Reactive Power and Reliability”

Michael Giberson Two years ago, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission issued a staff report diagnosing problems with the way reactive power is procured, paid for, and used in the U.S. electric power industry. The report was widely recognized as authoritative and thoughful, and as laying well the foundation for further progress on the topic. As …

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