January 23, 2008—An expansive and diverse group of 82 electricity market stakeholders—including retail electricity customers, consumer groups, retail service providers, economists and academics, utilities, generators, former utility regulators and innovative demand response service providers—has jointly urged federal energy regulators to stay the course in a pivotal rulemaking designed to improve organized regional wholesale electricity markets.
The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) should maintain the scope of its June 22, 2007, advance notice of proposed rulemaking (ANOPR), which identified four areas for important incremental improvements in the organized wholesale power markets, the coalition said in its recent regulatory filing, says the coalition.
The broad-based coalition noted that fundamental redesign of the markets would be disruptive and harmful to consumers.
The coalition noted that FERC has already determined competitive markets to be successful.
The coalition’s filing responded to a Dec. 17, 2007, request by large industrial energy users and other interest groups making unsubstantiated claims and asking the Commission to expand the scope of its proceeding to entail a formal Federal Power Act investigation of the organized markets overseen by regional transmission organizations (RTOs) and independent system operators (ISOs).
For more information, see the Web site for the COMPETE Coalition.
