Chairman James Hoecker announced yesterday that a FERC staffteam has been formed to closely monitor developments in theelectric market in an attempt to identify and prevent priceaberrations similar to those which occurred in the Midwest lastsummer.

“We can’t assure you…that price spikes won’t recur during thistime of transition to competitive markets especially, but we willmaintain a grasp and current understanding” of the power market tohelp “identify trouble spots” before they arise, he said atWednesday’s Commission meeting.

Towards this aim, Commission staff will “engage in a dialoguewith state regulators, with ISOs, with the NERC regions, withmarketers and utilities and transmission providers to determinewhether there are lingering problems that the public and theindustry and we need to know about,” Hoecker noted.

“They will monitor such issues as generation capacity, reservemargins, transmission constraints, pricing trends, [and] weatherconditions obviously.”

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