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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

Enron California Trades Called 'Sham Transactions'

LCG, Apr. 12, 2002--According to Loretta Lynch, president of the California Public Utilities Commission, trades executed at rising prices between Enron and its affiliates in the fourth quarter of 2000 made the market for electric power seem more active and volatile than it actually was, and caused higher power prices in the Western states.

Lynch, speaking before a subcommittee of the Senate Commerce Committee, said that data supplied by Enron to the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission showed that 30 percent of trades by the affiliates took place with other such affiliates and subsidiaries of the company, including the New Power Company, Enron Energy Services, Enron Energy Marketing, Enron Power Marketing and Portland General Electric. The prices of the trades that Lynch alleged were "sham transactions" were posted on the EnronOnline trading system, and could have been considered a reference point by other market participants.

Other witnesses, such as energy analyst Robert McCollough, found that transaction data was not sufficient to determine conclusively that Enron's trades were the sole reason for higher prices, or that the trades did not have any relationship to the rest of the market. McCullough, however, found that a key off-balance-sheet partnership managed by Enron executives, LJM2, projected a much higher rate of return from an investment in an Oregon power plant site than Enron itself, suggesting that LJM2 either had "vastly more expertise than Enron, or ... foreknowledge of the events to come."

Sen. Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.) was of the opinion that Enron "used us a cash cow to keep that company afloat, keep the stock price high so insiders could cash out." Sen. Peter G. Fitzgerald (R-Ill.), consistent with remarks by some Republicans, said that California's deregulated market design was responsible for high prices, and that he was "skeptical" of Enron having an impact.
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