TY - CONF T1 - An Efficient Bilateral Market Needs a Pool. Y1 - 1994 A1 - Hogan, William W. AB - Excerpt from the Summary:

The Commission through its "Blue Book" proposals has launched a process moving with breathtaking speed to completely restructure the electricity industry. The call to mark "the end of one era and the beginning of another" has been heard, and the participants are fully engaged in looking ahead and rethinking the most fundamental aspects of the structure of the market. The Commission can observe the remarkable impact of its initiative. For example, the idea of customer choice and direct access is now conventional wisdom, with the debate already having moved from policy to implementation. The focus of this hearing on the operation of the wholesale market addresses a central part of the puzzle. Here too there has been a stunning innovation. The Poolco proposals offered by San Diego and Edison mark a major break with the past of vertically integrated, cost-ofservice regulated utilities. As of yet, there is still a great deal of misunderstanding about the scope and fundamentals of this revolution. However, as the process unfolds, and if there is a serious attempt to evaluate these and competing proposals on their merits, Californians will come to appreciate that the innovations set a new world standard for both speed of development and strength of concept. The "level playing field" has become the goal of the incumbents as good policy and to avoid the cost-shifting that would otherwise occur. Faced with the requests of third parties and new entrants for true open access to the essential facilities, the strategy of the incumbents is to "just say yes." UR - https://hepg.hks.harvard.edu/research-library ER -