Enron Mail

From:mark.haedicke@enron.com
To:steven.kean@enron.com
Subject:Re: USA: FACTBOX-FERC details changes for Calif power market.
Cc:
Bcc:
Date:Fri, 3 Nov 2000 08:33:00 -0800 (PST)

Thanks for the heads up. Mark



Steven J Kean@ENRON
11/01/2000 03:43 PM

To: Mark E Haedicke/HOU/ECT@ECT
cc:
Subject: USA: FACTBOX-FERC details changes for Calif power market.

Joe Hartsoe, Rick Shapiro, or Jim Steffes can fill you in on the details of
what FERC did today. One question you need to think about is how their
decision on price caps affects any contracts which we may have indexed to
California's spot market. The way it reports the market clearing price will
change fundamentally if prices over 150 will be accepted but not used to
clear the market for all bids. So, if we are using this as a reference price
in our contracts it may trigger the need to look for alternatives.
----- Forwarded by Steven J Kean/NA/Enron on 11/01/2000 03:39 PM -----

Ann M Schmidt
11/01/2000 10:37 AM

To: Mark Palmer/Corp/Enron@ENRON, Karen Denne/Corp/Enron@ENRON, Meredith
Philipp/Corp/Enron@ENRON, Steven J Kean/NA/Enron@Enron, Elizabeth
Linnell/NA/Enron@Enron, Eric Thode/Corp/Enron@ENRON, Laura
Schwartz/Corp/Enron@Enron, Jeannie Mandelker/HOU/ECT@ECT, Mary
Clark/Corp/Enron@ENRON, Damon Harvey/ENRON_DEVELOPMENT@ENRON_DEVELOPMENT,
Keith Miceli/Corp/Enron@Enron, James D Steffes/NA/Enron@Enron, Richard
Shapiro/NA/Enron@Enron
cc:
Subject: USA: FACTBOX-FERC details changes for Calif power market.

USA: FACTBOX-FERC details changes for Calif power market.

11/01/2000
Reuters English News Service
(C) Reuters Limited 2000.

WASHINGTON, Nov 1 (Reuters) - The U.S. Federal Energy Regulatory Commission
on Wednesday approved several actions to revamp California's power market
over the next two years.
Immediate changes include the following:
* Eliminate requirement that three utilities - Pacific Gas & Electric, San
Diego Power and SoCal Edison - must sell all of their power to and buy all
their power from the state Power Exchange (PX).
* Require market participants to schedule 95 percent of their transactions in
the day-ahead markets to reduce chronic underscheduling of load and
generation and over-reliance on the ISO's real-time imbalance market to meet
supply. FERC also proposed a penalty charge for scheduling deviations in
excess of 5 percent of hourly load requirements.
* Temporary modification of the single-price auction so bids above $150 MWh
cannot set the market clearing price paid to all bidders.
* Establish independent, non-stakeholder governing boards for the California
Power Exchange (PX) and Independent System Operator (ISO).
* Create congestion management design proposal.
* Establish generation inter-connection procedures.
* Explore alternatives to the single price auction by the ISO and PX.
* Develop market rules to ensure sufficient supply is available to meet load
and reserve requirements.
FERC also approved changes to protect wholesale customers from unreasonable
rates during the time it will take to adopt longer-term market remedies. The
following price mitigation measures will remain in effect until Dec. 31,
2002:
* Single-price auctions for all sales in the ISO and PX markets at or below
$150 MWh. The single price would be used for all load which clears below this
amount in the auction.
* If an auction does not clear below the $150 MWh level, suppliers who choose
to bid above $150 would be paid their price bid. In other words, the highest
bid of the day, if above $150 per MWh, would no longer be the clearing price
paid by all.
* Sellers receiving above $150 per MWh would be required to report their bids
to FERC on a weekly basis and provide certain cost information to the agency.
* The ISO and PX would be required to report monthly information on such
bids, allowing FERC to monitor competitive conditions and assure just and
reasonable rates. Sellers would be subject to potential refund liability but
no lower than their marginal or opportunity cost if FERC finds
non-competitive conditions. The potential refund liability would extend the
full 24 months it would take to implement the market reforms.

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