Re: Bitten by NIMBY, CA power system goes socialist...

From: hal@finney.org
Date: Wed Jan 17 2001 - 23:57:31 MST


I wrote to Steven Stoft, a researcher at the University of California
Energy Institute, and he said that the single-price auction rule is
NOT applied on an full-day basis. Each auction is only for that hour.
(He further emphasized that as-bid would probably not save significantly
over single-price.)

The only evidence I have found to the contrary is that one sentence in
the press release from the FERC. The full text of the FERC order refers
to the single price auction in many places, but never says anything about
the maximum price of the day being used. They only talk about the effects
of single-price vs as-bid in the context of a specific auction period.

So perhaps this is simply a misstatement on the part of the PR people
at FERC who prepared the press release, attempting to explain what a
single-price auction means for the lay public, and missing the mark
themselves. That would make much more sense.

Is there other evidence available that the California markets actually
follow this highest-price-of-the-day policy?

Hal



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