Perspective: The road to reform
- J. Makowski Associates Inc., Boston, MA (United States)
The rapid transformation underway in the utility industry provides ample evidence that the reality of the Energy Policy Act of 1992 is sinking in. This law reflected Congress's conclusion that competition in wholesale power generation-at the plant busbar-is a demonstrable reality. It expressed the vision of a fully competitive wholesale generation market, with suppliers linked to markets through a grid that would provide service on a nondiscriminatory basis. But will consumers reap the full benefits of effective competition at the wholesale generation level Or will more disorderly forms of competition emerge, reflecting a hybrid of deregulation and old-fashioned monopoly tactics Along the latter course we run the risk of cost shifts among customer classes, customer defections, diminished utility cooperation, and higher overall costs to society. In short, the vision of a competitive market in wholesale generation will not come about without thoughtful efforts at defining the relevant market, as well as careful attention to the management of a difficult transition away from outmodes mindsets and regulatory models. As a national trade association representing independent power producers (IPPs) and suppliers of goods and services to the competitive wholesale electric generation industry, the Electric Generation Association (EGA) believes that constructive dialogue will yield the best approach to managing this difficult process of transition. In that spirit, the EGA Emerging Operational Issues Committee recently released a while paper, [open quotes]Electrifying Change: Strategies for Structural Reform in the Electric Industry,[close quotes] which forms the basis for this article.
- OSTI ID:
- 7106990
- Journal Information:
- Fortnightly; (United States), Vol. 132:7
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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