Some of our region's market participants also participate in other ISOs, and have helped Texas learn from the experience of others. The Mock Market tested the complex new electric industry infrastructure that has been built. In addition, scrupulous attention was paid to the creation of Market Protocols, which are the rules that all Market Participants must follow. By the spring of 1996, all but 10 states had started consideration of bills and regulatory actions intended to introduce competition into the electric supply business. Several states had pilot programs, while eight had already passed laws, by July 1996, setting up the rules for restructuring.
Structural changes being implemented vary widely.
Some States are requiring full or functional unbundling of electricity services. A number of States are establishing public benefits programs in the areas of energy efficiency, the environment, and minimum renewable generation-as high as 30 percent in California and Maine. Most States are allowing stranded costs, under certain conditions and with definite time and rate limits. Most stranded costs must be recovered over a period of 4 to 10 years. In other states, companies and their stockholders were told to absorb those costs.