Thanks.  Pls send out.

Jim

 -----Original Message-----
From: 	Pharms, Melinda  
Sent:	Friday, September 14, 2001 2:12 PM
To:	Steffes, James D.
Subject:	Open Access in California

Hey there Jim.  I'm glad you made it back in one piece.  I'm sure your wife was frantic.  

FYI:  This past week-end, Becky and I attended NESA's annual conference.  One of the highlights was a panel entitled "Power Deregulation."  On the panel:  Brad Williams, Sr. VP, Entergy Wholesale Operations;  Michael Schneider, Director, San Diego Gas & Electric (SDG&E); Steve Gillialand, Sr. VP, Duke Energy North America, LLC; and Jerry Winter, VP, Reliant Energy Services.  Note: Loretta Lynch, President, CPUC was scheduled to participate on the panel as well, but she was a no-show.  My guess - she chickened out.  It was probably for the best because everyone on the panel "slammed" California, the Governor, and the CPUC.

I had the opportunity of questioning Michael Schneider (I asked these via note cards) of SDG&E in regards to Open Access and where did it look like the legislature was going with it and what was SDG&E's position.  On record, he said that open access will pass through legislature but that it would be "segmented."  For example, depending on the size of the customer would depend on if they can participate in regards to open access.  The Large customers can have the opportunity to participate in open access but supposedly because the smaller customers "aren't really educated" on the issues of open access, they won't be able to participate.  (Sounded rather patronizing to me, even if he was rather pleasant.)  How does SDG&E feel about open access?  He said that they're definitely in favor of  open access and feel that it is needed but only for large customers and that the smaller customers aren't "quite ready" for open access because again lack of education.  Supposedly the smaller customers aren't sophisticated enough I guess.

Jim, question - is this something everyone on the Ca. calls already know including you or should I send this out to others as a "FYI" ?

Melinda