Frontlines

Pancakes for Breakfast?

Two new transcos wake up to a stack of protests.

With the first deadline only a month away, electric utilities have launched trial balloons before filing plans at the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission for regional transmission organizations (RTOs).

Off Peak

September 1, 2000

Wakeup Call in San Diego?

By Regina R. Johnson

News Digest

 

Frontlines

Prices Hit a Pique

California pays the bill, but who gets the blame- the feds or the fundamentals?

What did they know and when did they know it? That's what California consumers are asking utility regulators and system operators, now that the heat of summer has made a shambles of the state's vision of electricity competition.

 

The Federal Trade Commission likely will regulate those business-to-business Web portals, but how much?

Electric utility executives may be a step behind the Internet revolution, but in one key respect they may have an advantage over anyone else building an e-commerce Web portal for business-to-business (B2B) procurement.

Utility executives don't fear government regulation. They're already caught in the net.

1 See, e.g., Susan S. DeSanti, "The Evolution of Electronic B2B Marketplaces," remarks before the FTC Public Workshop, (June 29, 2000).
2 "Antitrust Guidelines for Collaborations Among Competitors" ("Collaboration Guidelines"), 4 Trade Reg. Rep. (CCH) ¦13,160, (April 7, 2000).
3 See Collaboration Guidelines ¤¤ 3.31(a) and Appendix, Example 4.
4 Id.
5 Id.; but see Appendix, Example 9.
6 Id. ¤ 4.1.
7 See generally Collaboration Guidelines, ¤ 3.34(d).
8 Collaboration Guidelines ¤¤1.2, 3.2.

1 David Perry, of Ventro (Red Herring, 2000).
2 When the California market was deregulated in 1998, the power exchange and independent system operator began using the Web for all billing and settlement transactions.
3 Energy Services & Telecom Report, 2000.
4 Power Markets Week, 1999.
5 Energy Services & Telecom Report, 1999.
6 Ibid.
7 Utilities IT, 1999.
8 Sound View Technology Group, Feb. 11, 2000.
9 Ariba, March 23, 2000, E* Offering.