Michael Giberson
EPSA, an industry trade association for independent power generators, has also posted comments in response to the Jerry Taylor and Peter Van Doren editorial on electric industry restructuring. Given that their members are non-utility generators, you can imagine that they wouldn’t be too excited about the Taylor/Van Doren view that vertical integration is the way the industry should go.
While EPSA appreciates many points made by the authors in their piece, it says “the authors seem to misunderstand the benefits of … regional transmission organizations (RTOs),” and posit a number of mistaken reasons why a vertically-integrated utility is preferable to a more competitive structure.”
In the response EPSA counters three specific positions advanced in the editorial. I’m not too sure of the second claim, concerning the alleged success of RTOs in coordinating transmission expansions, but I think EPSA is right on points 1 and 3.