Energy Market Overhaul

 

The Brief: Rift Opens Between Oil, Electric Interests on Market Overhaul

 
          by John Reynolds,   The Texas Tribune    i Jan. 9, 2014        
       
http://www.texastribune.org/2014/01/09/brief/

The Big Conversation

The Public Utility Commission's proposed changes to the electric market gained a powerful detractor in recent days: the Texas Oil and Gas Association, the state's oldest and largest petroleum organization.

As reported by the Tribune's Jim Malewitz, TXOGA sent a letter to the PUC last week saying it opposed creating a capacity market "that would pay electricity providers billions of dollars to maintain excess generating capacity." The move also opens a rift between the influential petroleum group and the electric utility industry, which backs the capacity market model.

TXOGA asserted in its letter that the PUC did not have the authority to embark on a market redesign and that a capacity market would not work as intended. Instead, more efforts should be made to take advantage of "smart grid" technology, TXOGA argued.