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Originally Posted by DoubleK
ERCOT and CALISO have very different regulatory compacts.
The OPG/Hydro One cluster in Ontario is arguably worse from a ratepayer perspective.
In your opinion, who has gotten this right? There are arguments for and against State-owned utilities, energy only markets and capacity markets.
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I don't know too much about the ins and outs of each specific setup. I just don't see any evidence that deregulated electricity markets benefit consumers. They seem to struggle with having adequate capacity and they generally expose consumers to market forces that can drive up costs. So it sort of creates the worst of both worlds.
I mean, the fact that Germany's year-ahead wholesale electricity prices dropped almost by half in the couple of days after the government threatened intervention illustrates that it's not solely the cost of generation that was driving prices up. The fact that power derivatives being speculated on can drive up an entire country's electricity prices is a failure.
I'm of the opinion that much like health care, electricity generation should either be handled or heavily regulated by the state. Though obviously that can come with its own set of issues.