Spotlight: Power Exchange Delays Start of Hourly Market

The California Power Exchange, a state agency set up to trade electricity in the newly deregulated market, said it will delay the start of a market that trades electricity hourly because its computer systems won’t be ready for a month. The power exchange is where 90% of the state’s electricity is traded the day before it’s delivered to homes and businesses. The hourly market is needed to give buyers and sellers a better forecast of electricity demand, which changes instantly because of weather conditions and outages.