Effects, if any, from deregulation of electricity?

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The business section of the Washington Post this past Sunday was totally devoted to the deregulation of electricity, particularly in our area, Maryland, Virginia and DC.

It made me wonder...does deregulation improve or worsen the utility industry's ability to become compliant?

-- Anonymous, October 18, 1999

Answers

http://www.spectrum.ieee.org/pubs/spectrum/9906/pow.html

don't know how to set up link, but this was on a thread a few days ago....from ieee spectrum newsletter.

-- Anonymous, October 18, 1999


try these links:Deregulation
Safety


-- Anonymous, October 18, 1999

try these links:
Deregulation
Safety
logo


-- Anonymous, October 18, 1999

There's been a lot written on how deregulation has impacted the electric industry's response to the Y2k issue.

Without question, the most important impact has been on the employees. Years ago, if someone went to work for an electric company, they were pretty much assured of a job for life. Over the past 10 years, that percieved employer / employee contract has changed drastically. Like many other industries, the electric industry has gone through a significant downsizing in recent years, through a combination of attrition, early retirements, and layoffs. As a consequence, there's a lot less people working in the industry than there was 10 years ago.

How does this impact Y2k response? In a couple of different ways.

First, the "history" of the companies that have downsized has walked right out the front door. Typically, the folks that knew the systems and could operate them off the tops of their heads were the folks that had been at the company for 20 or 30 years. These employees are always the first to go in any early retirement package offer or layoff, simply because they carry the highest salaries and benefits loads.

Secondly, the threat of layoffs has been hanging over the heads of many people in the industry for many years. This has resulted in a foxhole mentality - in other words, maintain a low profile, and don't make waves. Granted, not everyone in the industry has this mentality, but there's a lot of shellshocked people in the business who do, whether or not any of them want to admit it.

Deregulation has had a profound impact on the industry's overall response to Y2k beyond people issues. I'll try to toss a bit more into this thead later today. But (in case I don't have time) think about system reliability issues. Search this forum for details on the Chicago blackouts earlier this year. The bottom line is that I think the focus on deregulation delayed the industry's overall response to Y2k.

-- Anonymous, October 19, 1999


Deregulation had a dramatic effect on the airline industry starting back in the late 70s. A lot of big "name brand" companies are no longer around. The airlines, like the utilities, were in a regulated environment that guaranteed a profit, due to the pricing rules. What deregulation did was expose those managements that didn't know what they were doing, or how to compete. It literally busted them, and it was painful to watch them slowly unravel and die off. I am certain that any monopoly or stiffly regulated price structures will breed a management system that is lax and incompetent in a free enterprise arena. That's what we are seeing in the utilities now. Some will survive because they have good leadership. Many won't. Not paying attention to the Y2k issue was just one more piece of evidence about the inability of many utility managements to face reality. IMHO.

-- Anonymous, October 19, 1999


What Gordon says above is probably true if the deregulation had happened ten years or so ago. But I cannot see how the sale of the generating units at Pepco right in the middle of Y2K can possibly do anything but hinder operations.

-- Anonymous, October 20, 1999

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