Michael Giberson
Among the comments filed in response to the FERC technical conference on wholesale market competition, were remarks submitted by the District of Columbia Office of the People’s Counsel, Old Dominion Electric Cooperative, Maryland Office of the People’s Counsel, and Pennsylvania Office of Consumer Advocate. (Here is the Energy Legal Blog overview of the technical conference.)
The “Joint Commenters” reviewed 28 studies that assess current RTO/ISO wholesale power markets:
Although the study results differ, it is important to note that they are not useless; there is still tremendous value that can be derived from these conflicting views. Each of the studies is beneficial in identifying areas that require future study. However, these competing studies remind us that we must do our own due diligence and seek to objectively assess success or failure.
So you can do your own due diligence, I have included their list of 28 studies below. Most of these studies can easily be found online.
Bibliography of Competition Studies
March 13, 2007
1. “Estimating the Benefits of Restructuring Electricity Markets: An Application to the PJM Region,” (CAEM Study), Dr. Ron Sutherland, from the Center for the Advancement of Energy Markets, September 2003.
2. “Erecting Sandcastles from Numbers: The CAEM Study of Restructuring Electricity Markets Or a Critique of Estimating the Benefits of Restructuring Electricity Market: An Application to the PJM Region,” by Mathew Morey, Laurence D. Kirsch, Steven Braithwait, and Kelly Eakin, December 3, 2003.
3. “Beyond the Crossroads: The Future Direction of Power Industry Restructuring,” Cambridge Energy Research Associates (“CERA”) Study, 2005.
4. “Beyond Belief: A Critique of the Cambridge Energy research Associates’ Special Report – ‘Beyond the Crossroads: The Future Direction of Power Industry Restructuring,” Kirsch and Morey Response to the CERA Study, November 15, 2005.
5. “Putting Competitive Power Markets to the Test,” Global Energy Decision Study, July 2005.
6. “Putting Competitive Power Markets to the Test: An Alternative View of the Evidence,” Kirsch and Morey Response to the GED Study, October 25, 2005.
7. “A Response To Two Recent Studies That Purport To Calculate Electric Utility Restructuring Benefits Captured by Consumers,” Howard Spinner, Virginia SCC, November 2005. Response to CERA and GED Studies.
8. “Impacts of the PJM RTO Expansion,” prepared for PJM by Energy Security Analysis, Inc., (Krapels and Fleming), November 2005. ESAI Study.
9. “Capacity Revenues for Existing Base Load Generation in the PJM Interconnection, A Pennsylvania Case Study,” (Peterson, White, Biewald), Synapse Energy Economics, June 10, 2005.
10. “An RPM Case Study: Higher Costs for Consumers, Windfall Profits for Exelon,” (Hausman, Peterson, White, and Biewald), Synapse Energy Economics, October 18, 2005.
11. “RPM 2006: Windfall Profits for Existing Base Load Units in PJM. An Update of Two Case Studies,” ( Hausman, Peterson, White and Biewald), Synapse Energy Economics, February 2, 2006.
12. “A Review of Recent RTO Benefit-Cost Studies: Toward More Comprehensive Assessments of FERC Electricity Restructuring Policies,” Prepared by Joseph H. Eto and Bernard C. Lesieutre of Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory and Douglas R. Hale of Energy Information Administration, for the Office of Electricity Delivery and Energy Reliability, U.S. Department of Energy, December, 2005.
13. “Competition Has Not Lowered US Industrial Electricity Prices,” Jay Apt, Carnegie Mellon Electricity Industry Center Working Paper CEIC-05-01, www.cmu.edu/electricity.
14. The 2003 Blackout: Did the System Operator Have Enough Power?” Fernando L. Alvarado & Rajesh Rajaraman, August 26, 2003.
15. “Examining the Effects of Deregulation on Retail Electricity Prices,” John Taber, Duane Chapman, and Tim Mount, July 5, 2005.
16. “The Convergence of Market Designs for Adequate Generating Capacity with Special Attention to the CAISO’s Resource Adequacy Problem,” White Paper for the Electricity Oversight Board, Peter Cramton and Steven Stoft, March 31,2006.
17. “Uniform-Price Auctions in Electricity Markets,” Peter Cramton and Steven Stoft, March 18, 2006.
18. “Why Are Electricity Prices Increasing? – An Industry-Wide Perspective,” Gregory Basheda, Marc W. Chupka, Peter Fox-Penner, Johannes P. Pfeifenberger, Adam Schumacher, The Brattle Group (prepared for The Edison Foundation), June 2006.
19. “Review of the SCC’s Annual Report to the Commission on Electric Utility Restructuring of the Virginia General Assembly and the Governor of the Commonwealth of Virginia,” Prepared by Howard Spinner, September 28, 2006. (Platts Mid-Atlantic Power Markets Forum).
20. “Analysis of the Impact of Coordinated Electricity Markets on Consumer Electricity Charges,” LECG (Harvey, McConihe, and Pope), November 20, 2006.
20a. “Restructuring the U.S. Electric Power Sector: A Review of Recent Studies,” John Kwoka, November 2006. (This item gets a “20a” since it was not individually numbered in the Joint Commenters listing due to a clerical error.)
21. “Statement of the American Public Power Association Responding to an Analysis Commissioned by PJM Interconnection of the Impact of Coordinated Electricity Markets on Consumer Electricity Charges,” December 1, 2006.
22. “A Response to the November 20, 2006 Draft PJM ‘Supported’ Study by LECG: Analysis of the Impact of Coordinated Electricity Markets on Consumer Electricity Charges,” Howard M. Spinner, December 13, 2006.
23. “Review of LECG Analysis of Coordinated Markets,” prepared by Christensen Associates (Morey and Kirsch) on behalf of NRECA, 12/19/06.
24. “Today’s Organized Markets – A Step Toward Competition or An Exercise in Re-Regulation?” Prepared by Electricity Consumers Resource Council (ELCON), 12/4/06 .
25. “The Electric Honeypot: The Profitability of Deregulated Electric Generation Companies,” Edward Bodmer, Feb. 5, 2007. “Electric Market Reform Initiative (EMRI) Task 2 – Analysis of Operational and Administrative Cost of RTOs,” prepared by GDS Associates for APPA, Feb. 5, 2007.
26. “LMP Electricity Markets: Market Operations, Market Power, and Value for Consumers,” Synapse Energy Economics (Hausman, Fagan, White, Takahashi, and Napoleon), prepared for APPA, Feb. 5, 2007
27. “A Comparative Analysis of Actual Locational Marginal Prices in the PJM Market and Estimated Short-Run Marginal Costs: 2003-2006,” London Economics International ( Frayer, Ibrahim, Bahceci, and Pecenkovic), Jan. 22, 2007
Ged Exam Prep