Feds Order State To Pay For Past Power Buys

(KFWB) 11.08.01, 10:45a -- T

he Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) has ordered the state's grid manager to bill the state within 15 days for $1.2 billion in power purchased this year but not yet paid for. The FERC order was on behalf of power generators who are seeking to collect for power they sold to the state.

The state has been slow to pay because it did not receive invoices from generators. Federal rules do not allow the California Independent System Operator (ISO), which manages the grid, to provide such invoices, because the documents would reveal private pricing information.

The state's Department of Water Resources (DWR) says it will not release funds until it gets details of who is being paid and for what. The agency is responsible for purchasing power on behalf of financially-troubled utilities.

FERC said it ordered the ISO to bill the state, because energy producers need to be certain of payment for power sales in order to secure the reliability of future energy supplies.

Between January and June of this year, $23 billion worth of energy was sold in the state's wholesale market. In all of 2000, that total was $27 billion. And in 1999, the cost of all energy sold in the state was $7 billion.

-- PHO (owennos@bigfoot.com), November 08, 2001

Answers

Good grief, don't tell me the great state of California is now going to turn into a deadbeat.

-- Uncle Fred (dogboy45@bigfoot.com), November 08, 2001.