At Addison Mizner's pink fantasy on a Spanish theme, the Boca Raton Resort, the Edison Electric Institute (EEI) waited for Godot. Yes, that was the theme of EEI's 30th financial conference, and its first plunge into literature. You may remember the play, in which two hobos talk endlessly while waiting for the mysterious Godot, who has not yet arrived by the final curtain. In the same way, electric utilities and those who invest in them have been awaiting the advent of restructuring, the California remake of the industry, retail wheeling somewhere, and the wipeout of stranded assets. But utility stocks have risen despite the forebodings, and those watershed events may not take place until next year, or 10 years from now (em or never.
The opening speakers neither poured oil on troubled waters nor dropped any matches into the oil. They delivered a mixed message in an atmosphere of calm, apathy, or complacency. It was hard to tell which. Ex-congressman Philip Sharp laid out the legislative genesis of change, pointed to the political potency of the Electricity Consumers Resource Council, noted the bias in favor of competitive solutions, and concluded that any utility with a policy of waiting for Godot is looking for trouble. Consultant Howard Pifer proceeded to give a recipe for the future of the industry that contained all the usual ingredients: a competitive model, a better pool than that of the United Kingdom, vertical unbundling, better service, and lower prices (em just a lot of work on details still needed. Nothing new there.