APPA questions the benefits attributed to organized power markets.
Elise Caplan is the manager of the Electric Market Reform Initiative (EMRI) for the American Public Power Association. Previously she was an economic and legislative consultant for the Connecticut Municipal Electric Energy Cooperative (CMEEC), and before that was research director for the Illinois Citizens Utility Board.
Recently Public Utilities Fortnightly published an interview with William Hogan, Raymond Plank Professor of Energy Policy at the John F. Kennedy School of Government and “chief architect of wholesale electric market design in the United States,” according to the introduction to the interview (see “Bill Hogan, Unbundled”).1 In this interview, Hogan provides his assessment of the benefits of the restructured wholesale electricity markets operated by regional transmission organizations (RTO). As noted in Fortnightly, the American Public Power Association (APPA), through its Electric Market Reform Initiative (EMRI), has conducted numerous investigations of the RTO-operated markets and developed detailed proposals for reforming these markets. The conclusions reached by these EMRI studies and the recommended reforms have been in sharp contrast to Hogan’s positive assessment of the markets. APPA therefore is responding herein to Hogan’s statements and providing public power’s perspective on the success or lack thereof of the restructuring of the wholesale electricity markets.