The Year in Preview
The good news for residential and small-business customers of Southern California Edison and San Diego Gas & Electric is that they get an immediate 10% cut on their electric bills starting next month, thanks to provisions in the state’s electricity deregulation law taking effect Jan. 1. (Ratepayers in municipal utility districts such as Los Angeles, Pasadena, Glendale, Burbank, Riverside and Anaheim don’t get the reduction, but their rates are already 20% to 30% lower than Edison’s and SDG&E;’s.) But other benefits of deregulation, including free choice of power provider, have been put on hold because of problems with the computer system being set set up to handle the new power exchange. As a result, commercial and business customers will have to wait weeks and perhaps months to gain the savings they’ve been expecting since the law was passed last year. Power customers big and small will continue to wade through confusing offers by power marketers. But, bells and whistles notwithstanding, significant price breaks won’t be deliverable to residential users any time soon. Those won’t come until at least 2002, when consumers finally pay off utilities’ failed investments in nuclear, solar and wind power.
