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After SMD, what?

AUDIO CONFERENCE ON CD
Presented on May 28, 2004

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It's not likely that FERC would brush aside its federal mandate to develop competitive wholesale markets. Well then, what are its options? What's it actually planning to do right now?

We invited Richard O'Neill, FERC's top economist, to explore the options and tell what FERC's SMD policy is right now. While O'Neill is a fairly young man he's been a high-ranking FERC official as long as we can remember.

This presentation was an outgrowth of a presentation we heard by Harvard Professor William Hogan (John F Kennedy School of Government) who argues that FERC must adopt SMD no matter what name they give it and his reason is that none of the other systems work. You'll hear his views on this 90-minute audio CD too.

North Carolina Commissioner James Kerr would never agree with that. He's co-chairman of the SMD opponents organization. He's on the CD too along with Bruce Edelston, Southern Co Services director of policy and planning.

FIND OUT ANSWERS TO THESE QUESTIONS

• What happened to the FERC White Paper?

• Did Congress really instruct FERC to open up wholesale power markets in the Energy Policy Act of 1992?

• Is there any kind of wholesale competition that southern utilities would accept? What would it be like?

• Can supply margin assessment (SMA) accomplish the same goal? It's aimed at generation concentration but isn't the problem transmission access?

• Can locational pricing do the job?

• Get your own questions answered during the call by phone or email.

• And much, much more.

Bruce Edelston is Director of Policy and Planning with the Southern Company. At Southern Company, he has responsibilities for competitive assessments and the development of regulatory and business strategies related to electric industry restructuring.

Prior to joining Southern Company he worked for the Edison Electric Institute for fourteen years where he was director of power supply policy with responsibilities for research and policy development on industry restructuring, transmission access, bulk power and transmission pricing and other strategic competitive issues.

Edelston also has previous experience with Charles River Associates, an economics consulting firm, and the Westinghouse Electric Corporation.

He graduated from Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania with a BS in Electrical Engineering and Public Policy and a MS in Urban and Public Affairs.

William Hogan is research director of the Harvard Electricity Policy Group (HEPG), which is exploring the issues involved in the transition to a more competitive electricity market.

He is director of The Repsol YPF Harvard Kennedy School Fellows Program for energy policy research.

In addition, he serves as director of graduate studies for the PhD program in public policy and the PhD program in political economy and government at the Kennedy School of Government.

He has also served as chair of the public policy program and as director of the Energy and Environmental Policy Center.

Hogan has been actively engaged in the design and improvement of competitive electricity markets in many regions of the United States, as well as around the world, from England to Australia.

His activities include designing the market structures and market rules by which regional transmission organizations, in various forms, coordinate bid based markets for energy, ancillary services, and financial transmission rights. This research is also part of the larger activities of the Environment and Natural Resources Policy Program.

James Kerr was appointed to the North Carolina Utilities Commission by Governor Mike Easley for an 8 year term that commenced on July 1, 2001 and expires on June 30, 2009.

Kerr is the immediate past president of the Southeastern Association of Regulatory Utility Commissioners (SEARUC), and is a member of the Electricity Committee of the National Association of Regulatory Utility Commissioners (NARUC).

Prior to coming to the commission, Kerr was a partner with the law firm of Smith, Anderson, Blount, Dorsett, Mitchell & Jernigan, LLP. His practice concentrated in civil and administrative litigation, with significant experience in the trial division of both the State and Federal Court systems, the Appellate Division of the State Court system and the commission.

Richard O'Neill is the chief economic advisor at the FERC. From 1988 to 2000 he was the chief economist and director of the Office of Economic Policy. From 1986 to 1988 he was the director of the commission's Office of Pipeline and Producer Regulation. His work has focused on open access, restructuring, competition, performance based incentive regulation and market design.

From 1978 to 1986, he directed oil and gas analysis, including the development of software systems, oil and gas resource analysis, energy modeling systems, analysis of natural gas markets and oil and gas forecasting at the Energy Information Administration.

From 1973 to 1978, he taught and did research in computer science and applied mathematics on the computer science and business faculty of Louisiana State University. From 1969 to 1973, he taught and did research in the areas of operations research and statistics on the business school faculty of the University of Maryland.

He has a BS in chemical engineering, a MBA and a Doctorate in operations research (with minors in mathematics, statistics, economics and accounting) all from the University of Maryland.

He has worked with several countries, states, the World Bank, energy companies and computer companies in the development of mathematical software, energy modeling, forecasting, regulation, privatization, restructuring and market design.

His published work has appeared in academic and professional journals and books in the areas of applied mathematics, optimization, operations research, management science, computer science, energy, electrical engineering, economics and law.