Energy Issues

• Bonneville Power Administration - waiting for the end of the world
  Once upon a time, there was a federal energy marketing agency that actually worked. Now, the old party apparatachiks are showing up in the dead of night to systematically loot the public trust. This drama is both a fascinating microcosm of restructuring issues that are sweeping the electric utility industry, and a comic case study of what happens when public ennui collides with private greed.

• FERC NOPR on electric industry restructuring - Final Rule 888
  The big action in the US is happening at the Federal level at the moment. The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) has just issued the result of their year-long effort to sort out how the industry should be restructured. If you aren't ready to plow through the entire 300 page document, you can also look at a summary which hits the high points.
  
• Meanwhile, elsewhere in the Pacific Northwest...
  • Oregon UE 94
    Oregon is in the closing phase of a restructuring case which will establish a regional precedent for how restructured utilities get regulated on a state level. A coalition of state agencies and public interest groups have filed arguments and a closing brief in the case.
    
• Electric Industry Restructuring in Canada
  • British Columbia
    The British Columbia Utilities Commission is attempting to drag BC Hydro, the provincial utility agency, kicking and screaming into the 1990's. This report is the culmination of a year-long inquiry process examining the options.
    
    BC Hydro has responded with a wholesale wheeling tariff proposal that essentially locks in their vertical monopoly status indefinitely. Convergence Research presented expert testimony in the case on behalf of the British Columbia Energy Coalition (BCEC), advocating full restructuring and a public benefits charge for capitalizing a competitive market for energy efficiency. The BCEC closing brief for the case is also available.
    
  • Alberta
    Alberta has already moved to a provincial pool with and independent system operator.
    
  • Ontario
    Ontario has proposed a complete restructuring and partial privitization of Ontario Hydro.
    
• Electric Industry Restructuring in California
  It's looking like California is where a lot of the industry restructuring issues will be thrashed out first in the United States. The process has been described as mudwrestling in full opera dress, but actual results are emerging.
  
  The short version goes like this: the California Public Utility Commission released two competing orders in June 1995, one authored by Commissioner Knight, the other authored by Commissioner Fessler. Then, a consortium of the usual suspects banded together with a Memorandum of Understanding, which was countered by a consumer/environmental Framework for Restructuring. The result, announced at the end of 1995, was essentially the Fessler proposal, with numerous tweaks.
  
  Events are moving rapidly. The California Energy Commission is holding workshops on independent funding of energy efficiency and renewable energy. Meanwhile, Southern California Edison and Pacific Gas and Electric are frantically trying to regain the initiative by divesting overpriced resources on their own terms.
  
  Meanwhile, the next step has begun. The California Energy Commission is in charge of actually implementing the order. The California Legislature passed restructuring legislation in August 1996 that basically rearranges the deck chairs, but signs onto the concept of a massive restructuring of the industry.

• Electric Industry Restructuring in New England
  The most interesting processes in New England right now are in Vermont and Massachusetts.
  
  In Massachusetts, the New England Electric System (NEES) and the Conservation Law Foundation (CLF) are in the final stages of making a deal on restructuring. The state Department of Public Utilities, Division of Energy Resources, and Office of Attorney General have all issued interesting discussions of restructuring issues. And a slew of utilities, power wholesalers and assorted riff-raff have something to say.
  
  In Vermont, the Public Service Commission has initiated a restructuring inquiry, which has in turn generated an interesting proposal from Green Mountain Power.

• Energy in Eastern Europe
  Eastern Europe and the old European Soviet republics are attempting to build a modern energy infrastructure on the rubble of their old economy. This recent status report from the US Office of Technology Assessment focuses on opportunities to sell lots of US technology, so it's kind of self-serving. Even so, it's also informative.
  

Interesting Energy Policy Papers

• A Regulatory Compact Worthy of the Name, by Peter Bradford, November 1995
  Peter Bradford is a former New York utility commissioner, and an insightful observer of the current turmoil in the electric utility industry. This article cuts to the chase of the stranded investment issue.

• US Office of Technology Assessment report on environmental costing methodologies, October 1994
  A reasonable survey of ways to understand the external costs of energy production.

• Measuring the Costs of Photovoltaics by Shimon Awerbuch, January 1995
  An interesting, albeit controversial, approach to incorporating risk into the energy cost calculation.

• Recent work by the Northwest Power Planning Council
  The Northwest Power Planning Council is a quasi-federal agency charged with developing and implementing regional long-range power plans. The Council members are appointed by the governors of the four Pacific Northwest states, and work on a variety of energy policy issues as part of their regional planning function. Among other things, the Council is currently coordinating a regional review of utility industry restructuring, and a new five year plan, both due in 1996.
  
  The Council itself is hopelessly mired in politics, but their analytical staff is excellent, and their policy publications are generally worthwhile.
  
• Pacific Northwest Regional Forum on Restructuring Experiences, February 1996
  As part of a rear-guard action to preside over the collapse of the Bonneville Power Administration, the governors of the state of Washington, Oregon, Idaho and Montana have convened a panel to discuss electric industry restructuring issues. This transcript from a recent meeting summarizes restructuring experiences in Great Britain, Australia, Argentina, and the US natural gas and telecommunications industries.