The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) Mega-NOPR1 covers four topics:
1) The FERC's jurisdictional powers to implement wholesale open access
2) The FERC's proposal for electric utilities to recover "legitimate and verifiable stranded costs" from departing wholesale customers (a small fraction of all stranded investment), and its belief that states should ensure recovery on retail bypass (the much larger share)
3) A range of measures to implement wholesale open access
4) Market power in generation.
Let us focus on access and generation market power.
Opening Transmission
to Wholesale Access
The FERC begins by zeroing in on the biggest single drawback of a vertically integrated electric utility industry: "[M]arket power through control of transmission is the single greatest impediment to competition. Unquestionably, this market power ¬ can be used ¬ to block competition ¬ [or favor] a transmission owner's own generation."
The FERC also notes that control of transmission can unfairly depress purchase prices from neighbors who have no alternative outlets.