The energy secretary said he would like to see regional price caps to hold down electricity costs across the West and to minimize the amount of electricity flowing out of California for higher prices in other states. That concept is expected to be debated today at a meeting of Western governors in Denver. Davis is scheduled to participate by telephone. The gathering in Washington on Tuesday was the first to assemble so many players in California's newly deregulated market at once. But few held high hopes for an end to the finger-pointing that has so far marked efforts to shift electricity purchases out of the spot market and into contracts of a month to five years.
Generators say they are eager to sign deals but call utilities skittish.
Utilities say they need more reassurance that the California PUC won't punish them in years to come for locking in a price that will look expensive should market prices drop. Still, by the end of the day, there were glimmers of optimism that deals could be struck, and the meeting was to resume today. We're hopeful to get some actual contracts before it's through. The law stated that the rate freeze would last until March 2002 or until the utilities finished paying off billions of dollars of past debts from investments in nuclear and alternative energy, whichever came first. Residents paid the market price of electricity until prices got so steep last summer the Legislature intervened and capped rates.