Is the Federal Government actually requiring retail open access by Dec. 15, 2000 as stated in bill HR 655 in 1997? If so, how > can states like Colorado say they do not want open access? Is open access > required at the wholesale level but not at the retail level? i.e. FERC 888 requires open access to tranmission facilities.

-- Howard Wendland (howard.n.wendland@nspco.com), January 18, 2000

Answers

Through some research I've answered my own question. HR 655 never was passed. The states have the authority to define their own rules for retail electric customer choice, hence the differences between states like California(retail choice) and Colorado(not much movement towards retail customer choice) FERC has authority over trnasmission open access and results in FERC 888, 889 and 2000 rulings.

-- Howard N. Wendland (howard.n.wendland@nspco.com), January 31, 2000.

In New Zealand the same situation applied for quite some time. We have had open access at the wholesale level since 1992, but at the retail level (in theory) only since 1996. However when retail suppliers did start competing for customers, they found that the owners of the distribustion systems wouls skew the transmission prices to make true competion impossible. To counter this our government became very heavy handed and legislated that companies that owned lines had to split and sell off their retail sections. This then allowed true open access, but it also meant that retail customers have ended up with higher prices.

-- Malcolm Taylor (taylorm@es.co.nz), March 06, 2000.