IDFR has the FASTEST alert available and that saves $$$ By giving Alerts faster, people can save $$$$ and so can Power Co.... The $$$$$$ is going to be in Demand Limiting software:
The federal commission has calculated prices in recent months in the range of 30 cents to 40 cents per kilowatt hour. That is far higher than the average cost of 3 cents per kilowatt hour paid in 1999, but lower than the price spikes of 75 cents to $1.50 per kilowatt hour seen during emergencies.
By chopping off price spikes during California's power alerts, the plan could save billions in power costs.
Robert McCullough, an economist and industry consultant based in Portland, Ore., has calculated that state utilities spent an extra $4 billion during 39 power alerts last year.
The question of price controls bedeviled the commission's three voting members during a lengthy negotiation that stretched into Wednesday night.
Chairman Curt Hebert Jr., the lone Republican appointee and a steadfast opponent of price caps, said limiting controls to power emergencies removes the opportunity of sellers to abuse market power.
Hebert joined with Linda Breathitt, a Democrat who like Hebert was appointed by former President Clinton, to approve the order for limited price controls.
"Hebert is being forced to take some steps for political reasons that are probably not entirely digestible to him for reasons of ideology," said Baum, the Sempra chairman.
Dissenting was Commissioner William Massey, who pointed out that prices have increased tenfold in the state during hours of the day when there were no power alerts. Massey said he is in favor of price controls during all hours, regardless of power emergencies, in California and surrounding states.
That view was widely shared by California political leaders.
"We are paying illegal prices 24 hours a day, seven days a week, yet the FERC applies its so-called caps only during energy alerts," said U.S. Rep. Bob Filner, D-San Diego. |
