Utilities Need a System to Energize the Market

“Power Plants Put on Hold” (July 30) makes me wonder what we are all waiting for in the energy business. It seems clear from this article and many others that the deregulated energy market does not work as presently designed.

So we have two choices: Step back to something more like the old system or move forward into true deregulation of energy. We seem stuck with one foot in the old system and one in the new. It seems clear to me that we don’t have the political grit to truly deregulate and trust the marketplace to get our power supplies and prices right. So why aren’t we moving a step back to the old system? Why are we still frozen in the headlights of deregulation?

It is true that the old system cannot be fully restored. The California Public Utilities Commission required the utilities to sell off their power plants, and so those plants are gone. However, the utilities could be ordered to build new plants to meet the new load requirements under “cost of service” regulation (once we return them to financial health). These utility plants would provide energy at cost, and the non-utility-owned plants could continue to sell into the market at the market price. We had a lot of this hybrid design in the old system.

Thomas Long

Retired VP of PG&E;

Blaine, Wash.