Frontlines

Fortnightly Magazine - March 1 1996
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Mark your calendars for April 29, 1996. That's the date of the "filing of the century," according to Donald Garber, group manager for strategic plans and projects at San Diego Gas & Electric Co.

Garber is talking about plans to file a draft operating agreement at the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) for the proposed California Power Exchange. The April filing will mark an important step in executing the December 20 order by the California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC). (See, Decision 95-12-063, modified by Decision 96-01-009, Jan. 10, 1996, 166 PUR4th 1.)

And none too soon. After all, California is only now emerging from a "century of transmission wars," according to CPUC president W. Daniel Fessler. "It is the disappearance of many barriers," he adds. "It is the lapsing of the past."

Myths and Shibboleths

A competitive power pool is "an almost embarrassingly attractive idea." So says former FERC Commissioner Charles Stalon, who spoke at an EXNET conference in Arlington, VA, in late January. "All the pieces fit in a logical way," Stalon notes. "California is making policy for the entire Western Interconnection. Everybody understands it, but no one will admit it."

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