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Date: Fri, 20 Oct 2000 12:30:12 -0500
From: "Tracey Bradley" <tbradley@bracepatt.com>
To: "Deanna King" <dking@bracepatt.com>, "Paul Fox" <pfox@bracepatt.com>, 
"Ronald Carroll" <rcarroll@bracepatt.com>
Subject: Another DJ Article re CAISO Real-Time Information Fed to WSCC
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DJ Calif Pwr Cos May Have Used ISO Data To Up Prices - WSCC
Copyright , 2000 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.


By Jason Leopold
Of DOW JONES NEWSWIRES


LOS ANGELES (Dow Jones)--Electricity generators may have used real-time plant 
activity reports from the state's grid operator to their advantage in 
California's wholesale electricity market, according to an official with the 
Western Systems Coordinating Council.

Federal and state regulators are probing California's wholesale electricity 
market, looking for signs of market manipulation. The agencies are expected 
to complete separate investigations into California's power crisis in about 
two weeks.

They could force generators to pay back hundreds of millions of dollars if 
the probe determines generators manipulated the market using the real-time 
data, Dow Jones Newswires has learned from a high level source at the state's 
Attorney General's office.

At issue is real-time information the California Independent System Operator 
provided the Western Systems Coordinating Council, an governmental 
organization that monitors electricity reliability in the western U.S., about 
power plant activity in the state.

The real-time information allows market participants, which include companies 
such as Duke Energy North America (DUK), Reliant Energy (REI) and Southern 
Energy Co. (SO), to access data via an Internet site that shows how much 
capacity a plant with more than 200 megawatts has online at any given moment. 
Data about a power plant outage can also be obtained.

Data Intended To Be Used To Monitor Grid Reliability


The information was intended to be used to monitor electric reliability on 
the grid by the WSCC and 30 other transmission operators in the western U.S. 
But in order to allow other grid operators to access the data, the ISO was 
forced to make it available beginning in March 1999 to all market 
participants, according to WSCC standards and practices.

Last month, however, the ISO's attorney's alerted the WSCC that the "data is 
being used against them and to game the market," according to Bill Commish, 
director of dispatch with the WSCC.

Commish is in charge of the real-time database and ensures that the ISO is 
providing the state's power plant activity to the WSCC.

Commish said generators could use the information to withhold supply and 
drive up power prices or to identify transmission congestion in a particular 
region and use that to gouge customers.

However, the ISO, which controls about 75% of the state's power grid and 
real-time market, may have violated a FERC rule because it is required to 
keep such information confidential for 90 days, an ISO attorney told the WSCC.

Beginning Monday, the ISO will no longer provide such information to the WSCC 
or other market participants.

The source in the Attorney General's office said the investigation is 
focusing on a number of companies who may have used the information to 
manipulate the market and earn a "hefty" profit. The source said the Attorney 
General is paying close attention to companies that posted huge profits 
during the third quarter as a result of high wholesale profits in California.

Generators would be forced to refund customers and utilities and criminal 
charges may be filed against the companies, the source said.

-By Jason Leopold; Dow Jones Newswires; 323-658-3874; 
mailto:jason.leopold@dowjones.com

(END) Dow Jones Newswires 19-10-00