FERC's California plan needs pressing, to fix blatant gaffes on NOx, demand bids, and megawatt laundering.
Bruce W. Radford
Frontlines
Taken to the Cleaners
For the utility, wresting its assets from PUC control is the real point.
Bill Nesbit Pacific
For the utility, wresting its assets from PUC control is the real point.
Gas & Electric Co.'s 17-month-old proposal to divest its hydro assets via auction likely is dead, a casualty of California's ongoing energy market turmoil. Despite this reality, the utility's auction proposal remained active at the California Public Utilities Commission (PUC) as of press time in mid-January, even as the governor and state legislature held emergency meetings amid rolling blackouts.
When California cries "wolf," will its neighbors cower like sheep?
Robert McCullough
1 ISO terminology is complex and often misleading. A Stage 1 emergency occurs when the ISO does not meet its own reserve criteria. Stage 2 occurs when it cannot meet a 5 percent reserve margin. A Stage 3 takes place when it cannot meet at 1.5 percent reserve margin. An ISO emergency can take place even when local resources are available-so long as they have not been bid into its daily reserve purchasing.
Why rural electric cooperatives should test the equity markets.
Douglas L. Beresford
Why rural electric cooperatives should test the equity markets.
Last year saw no shift in fundamentals. Then why was the ISO so willing to be deceived?
Robert McCullough
Off Peak
November 15, 2000
Rx for IOUs: Slim Down
To an industry whose mantra of late has been "diversify and conquer," a prominent utilities consultant has some startling advice: Slim down and focus on your core strengths.
California pays the bill, but who gets the blame- the feds or the fundamentals?
Bruce W. Radford
Frontlines
Prices Hit a Pique
California pays the bill, but who gets the blame- the feds or the fundamentals?
What did they know and when did they know it? That's what California consumers are asking utility regulators and system operators, now that the heat of summer has made a shambles of the state's vision of electricity competition.
Ajay Gupta is an attorney and economist and currently a senior associate in the San Francisco office of Analysis Group/Economics, a consulting firm. Previously, he practiced corporate law in the London office of Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher LLP, where he specialized in securities offerings, energy, and petrochemical project finance transactions and cross-border mergers and acquisitions. He can be reached at agupta@ag-inc.com.
Telecoms may offer IOUs a model for multiplying market caps by dividing their shareholdings.
April 1, 2000
Richard Stavros
The top traders, investors and managers tell why energy convergence is still a pipe dream.
[Graphic tables included in the print version of the Fortnightly are not included in this electronic version.]
Energy investors seemed less willing in 1999 to greet electric/gas combination mergers with the kind of blind enthusiasm they tended to show in prior years.
Instead, they now demand proof that energy convergence really does create tangible value beyond the mere sum of the parts. At least that's the impression gained from talking with John W.
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