Calif Controller: Long-Term Pwr Contract Average Over $69/MWh Monday, July 02, 2001 07:48 PM ET

LOS ANGELES -(Dow Jones)- The average price of the California's long-term power contracts exceed the $69 a megawatt-hour that was claimed by the governor's office, State Controller Kathleen Connell said Monday.

Contract prices range from $55-$249/MWh, with most contracts, as well as the average contract price, exceeding $69/MWh, she said on a media call.

"It's hard to come up with an average because we don't know how many megawatt- hours we'll buy...whatever the average is it is probably well in excess of $69/ MWh," said Walter Barnes, chief financial officer for the controller's office, who was also on the call.

The governor's office has said the contracts average about $85/MWh over the next five years, and about $69/MWh over the next ten years. At the time that announcement was made, there were a total of 38 contracts. There are now 41, Connell said.

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-- Martin Thompson (mthom1927@aol.com), July 02, 2001

Answers

I suppose I should be happy the average is not over $1,000 per mwh. There goes my tax bill.

What is the cost of solar, again? $8 or $9 or $10 per mwh? I am currently paying $11/mwh after all fees are added on, before the price hike hits. I wonder if I can get a loan to pay for a solar system . . .

And, with lots of other people thinking the same thing in central Calif, I wonder how long it would take to have somebody install? Hmm.

-- Margaret J (mjans01@yahoo.com), July 03, 2001.

Yes, it would be hard to come up with an average. This appears to be one of those cases where the price frequency distribution results in a rare inverse normal curve in which you never get the average!

-- Warren Ketler (wrkttl@earthlink.net), July 03, 2001.