PJM

Power Prices Today: Growing More Unpredictable

Even the volatility is volatile. And that can play havoc with hedging.

Even the volatility is volatile. And that can play havoc with hedging.

Jeff Skilling resigned from Enron over a year ago-after power prices in markets serving California had fallen 90 percent in three months.

But in July, Bank of America won approval from the Treasury Department to offer cash-settled electricity derivatives-with a former Enron regional director at the head of the desk.

So what has changed, and what hasn't?

Studying Apples and Oranges

RTO cost/benefit studies are difficult to reconcile.


 

RTO cost/benefit studies are difficult to reconcile.

The premise behind the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission's (FERC) push for regional transmission organizations (RTOs)-that they will provide positive economic benefits to society- increasingly is being challenged.

Perspective

FERC's call for regional PUCs will force state regulators to declare their allegiance.


 

FERC's call for regional PUCs will force state regulators to declare their allegiance.

How will regulators re-engineer restructuring? That was the theme of the seventh annual convention of the Mid-Atlantic Conference of Regulatory Commissioners (MARUC). But while the theme may have been the re-engineering of restructuring, other regulators felt more inclined to discuss the "re-regulating of restructuring."

News Analysis

Pennsylvania loses faith in FERC, looks for help from the Justice department.


Pennsylvania loses faith in FERC, looks for help from the Justice department.

"A well functioning market on an average day works better than we regulators can do on our best day." Perhaps this quote, attributed to Pat Wood, chairman of the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC), best captures the prevailing view among transmission officials in the Northeast. But the feeling out West is decidedly different. So is the mood among state utility regulators.

Transmission Expansion: Risk and Reward in an RTO World

Some thoughts on who should take the lead and how to set up financial incentives.


 

Some thoughts on who should take the lead and how to set up financial incentives.

One of the most interesting questions that arises from federal restructuring of the electric grid, with regional transmission organizations (RTOs) and a standard market design (SMD), concerns the risk of building transmission in an RTO environment.

A Vision for Trasmission: How the RTOs Stand

And where the trouble spots lie in FERC's grid plan.


And where the trouble spots lie in FERC's grid plan.

The mood appeared calm on June 26 in Washington, D.C., at the regular bi-weekly meeting of the U.S. Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC). Key officials from various regional transmission organizations (RTOs) had gathered before chairman Pat Wood and the other commissioners to brief them on progress over the past year in reforming wholesale electric markets, and on what the FERC might expect in the summer at hand.

Gas Turbinemania: The Merchant Power Plant Shake Out

Why it happened? Who lost in the bust? Who will survive to build another turbine?

Some merchant generation developers never saw the generation glut coming. Presenting the winners and losers of the latest cycle of boom, bubble, and collapse in the merchant generation industry.