A government-run transmission grid is one of the ideas that willbe proposed this week by California’s statewide association of 30government-run utilities in response to the summer electricityprice and supply woes. The municipal utilities account for about25% of the state’s electricity.

A second measure, which officials of the California MunicipalUtility Association (CMUA) plan to file with the Federal EnergyRegulatory Commission this week, calls for re-regulating wholesaleelectricity prices on a cost-based basis by targeting cost-basedcaps on specific generators.

The other steps CMUA will advocate are: (1) assuring reasonablypriced supplies for residential and small business customers tobuffer them from wholesale price volatility and (2) giving smallconsumers more options to control their electricity demand throughDSM, load management and distributed generation programs.

CMUA is taking the position that both state and federal actionsare needed to correct market flaws, and that among thosecorrections is the need to replace the existing nonprofit,state-chartered grid operator (Cal-ISO) by a public agency”TRANSCO” that will evolve into a multi-state regional transmissionorganization (RTO).

“It is important that we get some organization with theresponsibility and authority to build transmission,” said S. DavidFreeman, general manager of the City of Los Angeles Department ofWater and Power (LADWP), the nation’s largest municipal utility whowill attend the CMUA briefing to voice his support. “If you thinkabout new generation as like cars and the transmission system as anelectrical highway, we can make all the cars in the world, but ifwe don’t have enough lanes for them to move on, we are going tohave a problem.

“Transmission is as much of an essential item as power plants.All the attention the legislature has given the generating plantsiting laws is necessary, but insufficient in getting a balance ofsupply and demand.”

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