State to Delay Some Power Trading

California will delay some types of electricity trading until after it opens its power market to consumers, which may hinder new competitors planning to challenge the state’s utilities for sales this year. California postponed power competition from a planned Jan. 1 start because computers developed by two state agencies set up to monitor power sales could not communicate with each other. Now 10 computer-aided trading services will be delayed because the agencies are concerned the computer problems won’t be solved by the new deadline of March 31. One of the services being delayed is hourly trading. Instead, trading will be conducted a day in advance at first. The state agencies, the California Power Exchange and the Independent System Operator, said the computers may be ready to handle the hourly market before the March 31 deadline.