Critics Seek More Control Over ISO

THE WALL STREET JOURNAL / CALIFORNIA

Critics Seek
More Control
Over ISO
By Marc Lifsher

08/09/2000
The Wall Street Journal
Page CA1
(Copyright © 2000, Dow Jones & Company, Inc.)
Some people want the California Independent System Operator to be a lot less
independent.
The Folsom-based nonprofit corporation, which acts as the traffic cop for the
state's electricity grid, has been a lightning rod for criticism during this
summer's power crisis. Though generally praised for keeping lights on in the
face of severe shortages of electricity, the ISO has come under fire for
failing to move more quickly to lower the maximum price it will pay
generators for emergency power to meet demand and prevent blackouts.
Pressure on the ISO has eased considerably since last week, when its
governing board voted to lower the cap on such same-day, emergency purchases
-- the only type of pricing it has the power to affect directly -- to $250 a
megawatt hour from $500. But the heat hasn't been turned off completely. Some
lawmakers still are calling for changes in the 26-member ISO board, which
includes people nominated by power generators, utilities, middlemen, and
commercial and residential customers, among others. The critics want to
streamline the board and make it more accountable to the state's elected
officials.
The ISO was created by the state's 1996 utility-deregulation act to transmit
electricity smoothly between generators and utilities. Lawmakers devised the
independent board as a way to give the various "stakeholders" -- generators,
utilities, middlemen, customers and environmentalists -- a say in how energy
is supplied. Members serve for up to three years.
"It's inappropriate for the ISO governing board to vote on issues that
benefit them financially," says Sen. Dede Alpert, a Coronado Democrat. She
questions the wisdom of allowing out-of-state energy sellers and marketers to
sit on the ISO board and vote on emergency prices, especially when they have
an interest in keeping those prices high.
Sen. Alpert spent much of the Legislature's recent summer recess fielding
complaints about high electricity costs from her constituents, customers of
San Diego Gas & Electric Co., a unit of San Diego-based Sempra Energy. Last
summer, SDG&E became the first investor-owned utility in the state to have
price regulations fully lifted. This summer, its rates have doubled, as high
temperatures and power shortages have swept the West.
In response to a series of price spikes in Southern California and the wider
contention that skyrocketing prices indicate the failure of deregulation,
state lawmakers have scheduled a joint hearing tomorrow in Sacramento. High
on the agenda: possible changes in the ISO's governing structure and scrutiny
of the way it handles power statewide on hot days. Critics say emergency
purchases should be no more than 5% of electric-power sales, but were as high
as 33% of the market on hot days earlier this summer.
Key legislative leaders -- including Sen. Steve Peace, an El Cajon Democrat
who was the architect of the 1996 deregulation law -- would like to make the
ISO more accountable to state elected officials.
Possible changes include preventing industry representatives with conflicts
from sitting on the ISO board, as well as abolishing the ISO entirely and
shifting its responsibilities back to state utilities, under the supervision
of the state Public Utilities Commission. Until 1996, the PUC regulated all
electric utility rates and services.
ISO board members say legislative critics are unfairly focusing anger over
the price spikes on the ISO, which has only a limited ability to set prices.
Most electricity isn't sold through the same-day, emergency market -- but
through long-term contracts between sellers and utilities, or at least a day
in advance through the California Power Exchange, which is a nonprofit
corporation established by the 1996 law to serve as a trading floor.
"We need to create a government structure that is not susceptible to pressure
from one state senator or anyone else," to keep prices artificially low, says
ISO Chairman Jan Smutney-Jones, who represents the Independent Energy
Producers Association, the trade group for non-utility power generators. He
dismisses criticism of the board's out-of-state members. There needs to be
"an independent, interstate board" because energy is transmitted across state
lines, he says. Two Houston-based power sellers on the board, Dynegy Corp.
and Enron Corp., deny any conflict. Chuck Watson, Dynegy's chairman and chief
executive, blames state officials for expanding the ISO's role to include
monitoring prices. "If there's any finger-pointing," Mr. Watson says, "they
probably should start with the big finger pointed right at them."
Substantial restructuring of ISO governance could prove difficult. The state,
through the governor-appointed Electricity Oversight Board, has limited power
to make changes. Past efforts by the Oversight Board to exert control didn't
go far.
Last year, state lawmakers tried to give the Oversight Board the power to
confirm or reject ISO board members to make them accountable to state
officials. (Nominees had previously gone on automatically.) The effort was
opposed by officials of the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission in
Washington, D.C., which argued that the state couldn't have veto power over
the nominees of out-of-state power producers. In a compromise, California
officials were given authority to veto half the board -- those nominated by
residential, industrial, commercial and agricultural power-users.
The federal energy commission has final regulatory authority over the ISO and
has viewed state attempts to meddle with the agency as an unconstitutional
attempt to hinder interstate commerce.
Any proposed changes in ISO's governing structure "would be looked at very
closely by FERC," says ISO attorney Richard Jacobs.
This summer, the ISO board displayed an independence that was annoying to
state lawmakers. In June, Sen. Peace called on the board to lower its price
cap for emergency purchases, from $750 a megawatt hour (roughly the amount of
electricity needed to power 1,000 homes) to $250. The board responded by
lowering the cap to $500 a megawatt hour. A second attempt to lower the cap
to $250 failed to get a majority vote.
The reason? The three private power-seller representatives, including the
Independent Energy Producers Association, were joined by those representing
agricultural, industrial and commercial users in opposing a lowering of the
cap.
Then, the pressure on the ISO board really intensified. Gov. Gray Davis
weighed in, by sending the ISO board a letter asking it to lower the cap "to
the lowest possible level." Energy Secretary Bill Richardson ordered the
representative of federal-public-power sellers to change his vote from no to
yes. A consumer representative from the League of Women Voters also moved to
the "aye" column, allowing the cap to be lowered to $250.
Lowering the cap removes some of the rate pressure on residential and
commercial consumers in San Diego -- and takes some of the heat off the ISO
board. But not entirely: A Public Utilities Commission report on the state's
electricity market that was sent to the governor after the vote said that the
members of the ISO and the Power Exchange boards "can have serious conflicts
of interest" and that both organization aren't "accountable to the state or
its consumers."
An ISO spokesman said the board is in the process of producing a formal
response to the report and it declined to comment. A spokesman for the Power
Exchange said that it has followed the law regarding conflicts and that it
does protect consumers.
---