Para que lê inglês: Vejam o que diz a federação de consumidores da América sobre a desregulamentação do setor elétrico! Não é só aqui! E o nosso governo quer avançar mais! Vai privatizar a COPEL ainda esse mês!!! Nós vamos deixar esse caos se estabelecer?
CONSUMER FEDERATION OF AMERICA
For Immediate Release Contacts Thursday, August 30, 2001 Jack Gillis, 202-737-0766 Mark Cooper, 301-384-2204
NATION’S RECENT EXPERIENCE WITH ELECTRICITY RESTRUCTURING REVEALS ITS NEAR-FATAL FLAWSCFA Report Documents Failures and Recommends Pro-Consumer Federal and State Policies
Washington, D.C. — Despite predictions of huge rate reductions in states that restructured electricity service, consumers there are paying higher prices and receiving less reliable service than in those which have not restructured, according to a report released this morning by the Consumer Federation of America (CFA).
According to the study, policymakers now face the prospect that the costs of ensuring retail competition in electricity markets will greatly exceed any efficiency gains, so electricity prices will rise not decline. The new costs are caused by additional reserve requirements to prevent abuse of market power, higher capital costs to attract investment, large windfalls for existing plants, and increases in transaction costs to run the competitive network. "Consumers have been subjected to rate hikes and lack of competition not just in California but also in New York, Pennsylvania, and other states that have restructured," said Dr. Mark Cooper, CFA’s Director of Research and the report’s author. "Only a dramatic change in approach by federal and state policymakers can offer consumers the possibility of lower prices and better service," he added.
Restructuring States Experience ProblemsThe report, "Electricity Deregulation and Consumers: Lessons from a Hot Spring and a Cool Summer," documents the problems in key restructuring states. They include:
o In California, the withholding of electricity and price manipulation by energy suppliers quadrupled wholesale prices and threatened blackouts in the summer. The blackouts were largely avoided only by a combination of aggressive measures against market manipulation, conservation, and cool weather.
o In New York, summer rate hikes of 40 percent for Con Ed’s residential ratepayers combined with threatened blackouts to force dramatic regulatory interventions including price caps, emergency distribution of diesel generators, and conservation programs to keep the lights on and hold prices down. A cool summer provided additional breathing room.
o In Pennsylvania, the supposed model for successful restructuring, the end of temporary regulatory rate cuts and a rise in natural gas prices pushed up prices and pushed out competitors. Nearly three-quarters of firms offering competitive residential services withdrew, sharply reducing the electricity provided by competitors.
o Twenty-two states are currently restructuring. Among the early starters where mandatory rate cuts are running out or prices are being set at "prevailing market rates," like Massachusetts and Montana, consumer costs have been increasing dramatically.
Problems Caused by Structural FactorsThe report also explains the key structural reasons for the failure of electricity restructuring:
o Highly concentrated generation markets that bred price gouging and hoarding. o Increasing cost of capital for new plants and windfall profits transferred to utilities on their old plants.
o A transmission grid that was not designed, and had inadequate capacity, to support competitive markets. o A transmission grid owned by utilities who often refused to let their part of the grid be operated in an open, nondiscriminatory manner that allowed competition.
o Loss of efficiency resulting from deintegration of an industry that requires high levels of coordination and cooperation among suppliers, traders, and government regulators.
"California policymakers made some bad decisions, but they were not entirely responsible for the state’s energy crisis; exploitive energy suppliers and irresponsible federal regulators also played major roles," said Cooper.
Only Drastic Remedies Can Save RestructuringThe report also spells out those conditions needed to make electricity restructuring work: o Electricity markets need at least twice as many competitors as currently deemed sufficient to support competition. The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission has been defining markets as workably competitive when there are five equal size competitors in a broadly defined market. The empirical literature shows that there must be at least ten equal-size competitors in narrowly defined markets. o Reserve margins must be much larger than previously thought. In addition to operating reserves that have traditionally been set at 15 to 20 percent, competitive markets need an economic reserve to discipline price abuses of an additional 10 to 20 percent. Thus, most competitive markets need at least a 30 percent reserve margin.
o The transmission system must be independent of all generator interests and operated by an entity whose sole purpose is to promote the public interest. Because the transmission wires are natural monopolies, companies owning the wires must be closely regulated to prevent them from earning windfall profits.
o An obligation to serve customers without an obligation to build energy facilities is a prescription for disaster. It is too easy for spot market traders to exploit utilities that are desperate for power.
CFA Urges Federal and State Policymakers To Take Effective Actions "Since we see no prospect that policymakers will address underlying problems in electricity markets in the near future, we recommend that legislators and regulators take the following immediate actions," said Cooper:
o Any state that has not restructured should not.
o States that can slow down or stop should do so.
o States that do move ahead should reorient their approach to competitive bidding for long-term supply, and avoid spot markets.
o Federal policymakers should ensure competitive interstate wholesale markets and an open interstate highway system, with adequate capacity, for electrons.
o Federal regulators must also restore public confidence in their ability to identify, investigate, and ameliorate market manipulation. Over the past several years, Cooper has testified more than 40 times on electricity restructuring before federal and state legislators and regulators. As early as 1997, he predicted most of the problems that have recently surfaced in electricity markets. CFA is a non-profit association of 285 pro-consumer groups that, since 1968, has sought to advance the consumer interest through education and advocacy. The full report can be found at: http://www.consumerfed.org/erspring.pdf
