[Federal Register Volume 62, Number 10 (Wednesday, January 15, 1997)]
[Notices]
[Pages 2144-2145]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 97-914]
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DEPARTMENT OF ENERGY
[Docket No. ER96-1663-000]
Pacific Gas and Electric Company, San Diego Gas & Electric
Company and Southern California Edison Company Notice of Technical
Conference and Potential Broadcast of Technical Conference
Issued January 8, 1997.
As previously announced in the Commission's order issued on
December 18, 1996, Pacific Gas and Electric Company, et al., 77 FERC
para.61,265 (1996), the Commission will convene a technical conference
in the above captioned proceeding to be held on Friday, January 17,
1997, at the offices of the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, 888
First Street, N.E., Washington, D.C. 20426. The technical conference
will commence at 9:30 a.m. and will be open to all interested persons.
The Commissioners and Staff will participate in the technical
conference, which will address options for mitigating the market power
of Pacific Gas and Electric Company, San Diego Gas & Electric Company
and Southern California Edison Company, who have jointly filed an
application for authorization to sell power at market-based rates
through a power exchange.
The Conference will consist of three panels, as outlined on the
Attachment to this notice. In addition, all interested persons are
invited to submit written comments addressing topics discussed at the
technical conference. (There is no need to reiterate comments that
already have been made in pleadings filed in these dockets.) Comments
must be received on or before January 27, 1997. The comments should not
be longer than 25 pages in length, double-spaced, on 8\1/2\'' x 11''
paper, with standard margins. Parties submitting comments must submit
fourteen (14) written copies of their comments and also must submit two
copies of the file on a computer diskette, one in Wordperfect 5.1
format, and one in a DOS file in the ASCII format (with 1'' margins and
10 characters per inch.). The two computer files should be labeled
(--.WP and --.ASC) to avoid confusion. Comments must include a one-page
executive summary and must be filed with the Office of the Secretary,
Federal Energy
[[Page 2145]]
Regulatory Commission, 888 First Street, N.E., Washington, D.C. 20426
and reference Docket No. ER96-1663-000. All written comments will be
placed in the Commission's Public files and will be available for
inspection or copying in the Commission's Public Reference Room during
normal business hours. The Commission also will make all comments
available to the public on its electronic bulletin board (EBB).
Broadcast of Technical Conference
If there is sufficient interest, the Capitol Connection will
broadcast the technical conference on January 17, 1997, to interested
persons. Persons interested in receiving the broadcast for a fee should
contact Julia Morelli at the Capitol Connection (703-993-3100) no later
than January 14, 1997.
In addition, National Narrowcast Network's Hearings-On-the Line
service covers all Commission meetings live by telephone so that anyone
can listen without special equipment. Call 202-966-2211 for details.
Billing is based on time on-line.
FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT:
David E. Mead, Office of Economic Policy, Federal Energy Regulatory
Commission, 888 First Street, N.E., Washington, DC 20426, (202) 208-
1024.
Linwood A. Watson, Jr.,
Acting Secretary.
Attachment--Panels, WEPEX Market Power Conference, January 17, 1997
Panel 1: Structural Mitigation Options
A number of options have been proposed which alter the market
structure or create incentives to reduce market power. Issues
associated with these options include:
Divestiture: are the current divestiture proposals
adequate to mitigate market power so that the Commission can approve
market-based rates?
Consumer access: how much do retail competition and real-
time pricing mitigate horizontal market power?
Existing entry barriers (generation and transmission):
what are they and how can they be remedied? Who has the authority to
remove any such barriers?
Call contracts: how do call contracts mitigate market
power for energy, capacity and ancillary services? What are the details
that should be included in the contracts? How should the call contract
prices be determined? Which units should be subject to call contracts?
Transmission constraints: how do transmission constraints
affect market power? How do transmission rights mitigate market power?
Bidding trusts: what is needed to mitigate market power?
Should bidding trusts be made a permanent mitigation measure?
Panelists
Paul Joskow, Elizabeth and James Killian Professor of Economics and
Management; Head, Department of Economics, Massachusetts Institute of
Technology
Representative, Sacramento Municipal Utility District
Jan Smutney-Jones, Executive Director, Independent Energy Producers
Association
Jim Macias, Vice President and General Manager, Transmission Business
Pacific Gas & Electric Company
Representative, California Public Utilities Commission
Jeffrey D. Watkiss, Coalition for a Competitive Electric Market
Panel 2: Mitigation--Institutional
When structural options are unavailable or inappropriate, a number
of other options are available which remove the incentive or ability of
entities to exercise market power. These options could be applied to
all market participants and serve to ensure that market power is
mitigated or applied to individual entities if the exercise of market
power is detected.
Bidding rules: what are appropriate bidding rules? In
competitive markets, generators would be expected to bid their running
costs.
Bidding incentives: what is the effect of the CTC (e.g.,
as a revenue cap for the California IOUs)?
Ancillary services: how may ancillary services interact
with other services to encourage market power? How should ancillary
services be procured to create competition and mitigate market power?
Panelists
William Hieronymous, Putnam Hayes and Bartlett, on behalf of San Diego
Gas and Electric Company
W. Kent Palmerton, Manager of Industry Restructuring Programs, Northern
California Power Agency
John Jurewitz, Manager of Regulatory Policy, Southern California Edison
Company
Barbara Barkovitch, California Large Energy Consumers Association, or
Keith McRae, Attorney for California Manufacturers Association
Eric Woychik, Utility Consumers Action Network and Toward Utility Rate
Normalization
Panel 3: Monitoring for Market Power
Information: what is the effect of widely available
information on the ability to detect market power? What information
should be collected and how will market power be identified?
How do the physical properties of the network change
market power analysis?
How should capacity availability and withholding be
identified and examined?
Who should be responsible for monitoring? What are the
appropriate roles for the ISO and the PX? What should the Commission do
to monitor market power?
Panelists
Larry Ruff, Managing Director, Putnam, Hayes and Bartlett (invited)
Michael Florio, Toward Utility Rate Normalization
Representative, California Energy Commission
Joe D. Pace, Pacific Gas & Electric Company
Representative, Electricity Consumers Resource Counsel
[FR Doc. 97-914 Filed 1-14-97; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 6717-01-M