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LCG Publishes 2024 Annual Outlook for Texas Electricity Market (ERCOT)

LCG, October 10, 2023 – LCG Consulting (LCG) has released its annual outlook of the ERCOT wholesale electricity market for 2024, based on the most likely weather, market, transmission, and generator conditions.

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LCG Publishes 2024 Annual Outlook for Texas Electricity Market (ERCOT)

LCG, October 10, 2023 – LCG Consulting (LCG) has released its annual outlook of the ERCOT wholesale electricity market for 2024, based on the most likely weather, market, transmission, and generator conditions.

Read more

Industry News

California, Federal, Industry Officials in Power 'Summit'

LCG, Dec. 19, 2000--Officials from regulatory agencies met today with the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission and representatives of power companies, marketers and utilities in an effort to relieve the upward pressure on electricity prices in California.

No matter what they do, they won't be able to accomplish the one thing that would alleviate the state's power crisis: Create an abundance of generation that would put the supply of electricity in balance with rapidly growing demand in California.

The high-level, closed-door meeting, moderated by FERC's Chief Administrative Law Judge Curtis Wagner, was to seek a long-term solution to the power squeeze that has seen electric bills triple in the San Diego area where consumers are no longer protected by a price freeze mandated by the 1996 legislation that restructured California's electric industry.

Elsewhere in the state, residential and small commercial electric customers are paying 10 percent less for power than they were when the deregulation law was passed, but the two investor-owned utilities that deliver that electricity have been making up the difference, to the tune of about $8 billion.

U.S. Energy Secretary Bill Richardson told ABC's Good Morning America that the goal of the state power summit is to "come up with a broad set of principles to deal with the short-term and long-termproblem.

"What we need to do is find ways that power can come into the West. There can be moreelectricity competition," Richardson said.

Richardson and California Gov. Gray Davis were expected to participate in today's meeting, possibly by telephone, where an attempt will be made to change the way utilities purchase wholesale power.

Under the state deregulation law, utilities are required to purchase all the power they resell to retail customers through the California Power Exchange. This arrangement quickly degenerated into competitive bidding for power on what is called the "spot market" -- a segment of the power market that would ordinarily be used for last-minute transactions to fill in the gaps, and amount to a tiny fraction of the overall market.

FERC has recommended that utilities be allowed to arrange for power well in advance, perhaps up to 30 years. Both utilities and power producers seem in favor of the idea.

Southern California Edison Co. spokeswoman Gloria Quinn said "I think everyone has reached the conclusion that reliance on the spot market, with all of its problems right now, is something to be minimized."

Power producers like the idea because it would stabilize future power sales and justify development of new power plants. Lynn Lednicky, a senior vice president of Houston-based Dynegy Inc. which owns 2,700 megawatts of California generation, said that with most trading taking place on the spot market "we're at the mercy of weather, demand, a number of different factors out there."

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