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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

FERC Judge Promises CaliforniaRefund Recommendations by August

LCG, Jan. 9, 2002--FERC Administrative law judge Bruce Birchman indicated yesterday at an all-day conference that he will issue a recommendation by August concerning refunds which the state of California and its two major utilities contend are owed them by power suppliers.

Prior to yesterdays hearing, Birchmans recommendation had been expected by March. His findings will go to the FERCs four commissioners, who will consider them in a decision regarding power refunds for wholesale power purchases last year.

The matter of refunds arose after last summers wholesale power market debacle, in which PG&E and Southern California Edisons power purchases at rates as high as ten times their past levels rendered the utilities less than creditworthy. In order to keep power flowing, the states Department of Water Resources stepped in to buy power from the suppliers. As for the actual impact of the recommendations, it will depend upon whether the FERC commissioners, including Chairman Pat Wood, are in agreement with Birchmans assessment. According to Birchman, "To presume the commission will do something is utter folly because the commission has its own priorities and nobody knows what they will be," he said. "Consensus doesn't seem to be a habit here. Compulsion (by an agency judge) seems to work," he added.

The suppliers contend that they too want a swift resolution to the uncertaint over refunds. They stated that they are still owed a significant portion of the revenues from the states purchases. John Estates is a representative for several of the creditors, which include Reliant Energy Inc., The Williams Cos., Enron Corp (which collapsed into bankruptcy last month), Duke Energy Corp., Calpine Corp., Mirant Corp., and Dynegy Inc. Estes said, "No one wants to get this question (of refunds) resolved quicker than the suppliers." He stated, "We were left holding the bag for billions of dollars and that is a significant hardship." During last summers crisis, the gap between what the utilities could pay and what they were able to pay widened as retail rates stayed frozen, and wholesale rates climbed.
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