ISO Press Conference -- $5.5 billion in refunds is wrong

THE LA Times was wrong in its assertion that the ISO was asking for $5.5
billion in refunds. The filing is submitting comments to FERC. The ISO
said that the purpose of the filing is to ask FERC to be more aggressive in
their approach to market mitigation and provide context to FERC for its
decision. The report the ISO staff has done covers the period from May 2000
to Feb 2001 and calculates that prices exceeded what they would expect in a
competitive market by $6.2 billion. The ISO states that it is not claiming
that these are overcharges. They understand that other factors are in play
and that the ISO does not have access to the generator cost data -- so they
are unable to say how much of the dollars are overcharges.

ISO General Counsel said he can't tell how much is an overcharge, how much
should be refunded, how much might be unjust and unreasonable. ISO is
working with other state agencies, AG, CPUC, EOB, and don't know if the
action should be taken at FERC, the courts, ...

In the press conference, the news reporters are using the term "gouging" and
the ISO is not using that term, but not necessarily correcting the reporters.

I'm still listening.

Sue Mara
Enron Corp.
Tel: (415) 782-7802
Fax:(415) 782-7854