One of the main themes of my work is that the value of customer retail choice in electricity is not just an increased likelihood of lower prices. Choice is good because it enables customers to go out and look for, and purchase, differentiated products. But, but, but, … the nattering nabob says, electricity is a …
There’s More Than Price To Retail Electricity Competition Read More »
The December issue of the Review of Network Economics is a special issue on regulation in network industries. I’ll have more to say on some of the other papers later, but for now I’d like to recommend reading Ray Gifford’s paper on regulatory impressionism. It’s a really superb analysis of what regulators can and cannot …
Randall Parker at FuturePundit has a post on superconducting power cables, in which he notes their benefits over copper: Superconductor power cables can carry three to five times the power of conventional copper cables. Compact, underground superconductor cables can be used to expand capacity and direct power flows at strategic points on the electric power …
The good folks at Progress & Freedom Foundation are all over the FCC VOIP proceedings. I encourage interested parties to start with Kent Lassman’s summary of the proceedings, and then scroll up for further commentary. From Kent’s conclusion: The real issue is not over the size of the sandbox controlled by state or federal regulators. …
I think VOIP (voice over Internet protocol) is one of the most thrilling technological advances of the past two years. It really hammers home the idea that no monopoly, however natural the regulators think it is, is etched in stone unless the regulators and the monopolists want it to be. Technological change creates contestability, which …
Secretary Abraham’s remarks on the release of the blackout report indicate some failure to meet reliability standards on the part of FirstEnergy, among other things: The Electric System Working Group found that the initial events that led to the cascading blackout occurred in Ohio. The blackout was initiated when three high-voltage transmission lines operated by …
The General Accounting Office report, “2003 Blackout Identifies Crisis and Opportunity for the Electricity Sector”, is now available. I’ll have comments on it as soon as I’ve had a chance to read and digest it.
From NY Newsday: Deregulated Power Grid Presents Own Challenges. An interesting read.
If you would like a copy of the Wall Street Journal commentary from last week but are not a WSJ subscriber, it’s available online at Reason.
According to this AP story from last Thursday, outgoing California governor Gray Davis has declared the energy crisis over: The recalled governor issued a proclamation Thursday ending the state of emergency he declared on Jan. 17, 2001, as wholesale electricity prices hit record highs and California suffered rolling blackouts. The crisis, which aggravated the state’s …
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