SJR 91
The Joint Subcommittee Studying
Electric Utility Restructuring
Meeting on Tuesday May 26, 1998
House Room 4
Virginia State Capitol
Overview
The task force convened on May 26 to discuss the overall structure of a Virginia retail competition plan. When the task force met briefly on May 7, stakeholders and all interested parties were asked to identify key structure and transition issues, and to provide them to the task force. Written comments were subsequently received from the Virginia State Corporation Commission, and from Virginia's investor-owned utilities, electric cooperatives, municipal power supply systems, natural gas companies, a coalition of commercial and industrial customers and others in advance of the meeting. The submissions were then posted to the joint subcommittee's web site.
Stakeholders and interested parties attending the May 26 meeting were asked to identify (i) structure and transition issues most critical to a Virginia restructuring plan, and (ii) an issue that should be taken up for immediate consideration by the task force at its next meeting.
Determining competitive services.
Virginia State Corporation Commission (SCC) staff noted that the task force must consider the extent of proposed retail competition, identifying those services--in addition to generation--that could become competitive under a restructuring plan. In several other states, for example, metering, meter reading, and customer billing are considered potentially competitive services.
Market power; default suppliers and suppliers of last resort.
Several parties, including the Virginia State Corporation Commission, ALERT, and the electric cooperatives, recommended that the task force take up the issue of market power related to transmission import constraints. Additionally, Consolidated Natural Gas (CNG) and other parties urged the task force to closely examine the "default provider" and "provider of last resort" issues.
Other issues.
Other issues flagged for consideration revolved around ISO/RPX formation. ALERT and CNG, for example, asked the task force to consider the question of bilateral contract availability. AEP Virginia thought the task force should also consider whether Virginia should adopt retail customer choice, independent of the effective dates of restructuring legislation adopted by other states served by ISOs serving Virginia.
Narrative restructuring plan submissions.
Virginia Power and ALERT representatives proposed that stakeholders and others advance the work of the task force by submitting brief narratives, describing the structure of retail competition in Virginia. They suggested that the narratives could help narrow the many issues raised by staff and all parties involved in this study. The task force agreed to accept these submissions, requiring them to conform to the general outline of SB-688 (a restructuring bill carried over to 1999 and referred to this joint subcommittee).
Next meeting on June 15; three issues.
The task force will convene its next meeting on June 15 at 9 a.m. in House Room 4 of the Capitol. At that time, the Task Force will focus on three interrelated issues identified by stakeholders as critical:
- Determining which electricity services will be competitive services following restructuring.
- Market power (particularly that related to transmission constraints).
- Suppliers of last resort and default providers.
Narrative plan submissions; June 25 deadline.
Stakeholders and all interested parties desiring to furnish narratives describing the structure of retail competition in Virginia have been requested to furnish them to staff for posting to the joint subcommittee's web site by Wednesday, June 25. Subcommittee staff has posted an outline for parties to follow tracking the outline of SB-688.
The task force will likely meet in early July to review and discuss, in detail, the narrative plans received.