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Best, Jeff
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FYI.
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FYI.
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Business&Finance: ESB ownership of network is questioned - Competition Authority says separation of national grid from core company does not go far enough.
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Arthur Beesley reports Irish Times Copyright (C) 2000 Irish Times; Source: World Reporter (TM) The Competition Authority has questioned the ESB's ownership of the electricity network in the newly deregulated power market.
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In a paper submitted to the Department of Public Enterprise, the body said the separation of the ESB's National Grid operation from the core company did not go far enough to ensure fair competition.
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It said arguments in favour of the ESB retaining the transmission and distribution system ignored the 'overwhelming conclusion' that a generation company which owns such assets 'will naturally favour itself' at the expense of customers and reliability.
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The paper has not been published yet.
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It is believed to state, however, that the ESB's retention of its 'non-competitive' transmission and distribution assets and its 'competitive' electricity generation business was unwise from a competition perspective.
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The National Grid, which controls when individual power stations feed electricity into the network, was separated from the ESB when 27 per cent of the market was opened last February.
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In theory, this meant the ESB could not favour its own generation stations over more efficient competitors when deciding which plant to switch on and off as demand for power fluctuates.
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But the authority's response to the Statutory Instrument behind the separation - which renamed the National Grid as Eirgrid - said more should be done to ensure the market operates fairly.
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The paper said: 'Some argue that as long as there is an independent operator of the underlying transmission system, ownership of the transmission system can remain in the hands of an upstream generation operator.
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'In accordance with this line of argument, the shift of operational control of electricity transmission to Eirgrid would mean that discrimination in dispatch [of power] and other operations would not be possible.
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However, the Competition Authority considers that this argument ignores the overwhelming conclusion that the generation company that owns the transmission lines will naturally favour itself.' The Statutory Instrument followed complex talks, which led to an agreement between the ESB, its trade unions and the Minister for Public Enterprise, Ms O'Rourke.
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When Eirgrid was formed, the ESB retained ownership and responsibility to develop and maintain the high-voltage national transmission system and the low-voltage local distribution network.
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The authority says these, too, should be separated from the ESB to ensure the competitive market functions fairly, according to a person familiar with its paper.
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This would ensure equal access to the power network and an objective, transparent, non-discriminatory treatment of all electricity generators in the market, it said.
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The paper argues the ESB has an incentive to allocate as many costs as possible to the operation of the transmission and distribution system.
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Folder Name: Utilities, Electric: Deregulation Relevance Score on Scale of 100: 100 To review or revise your folder, visit Dow Jones CustomClips or contact Dow Jones Customer Service by e-mail at custom.news@bis.dowjones.com or by phone at 800-369-7466.
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(Outside the U.S. and Canada, call 609-452-1511 or contact your local sales representative.) Copyright (c) 2000 Dow Jones &Company, Inc. All Rights Reserved
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Greetings.
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The reference is specific to statements that we made when FERC first issued it's proposed order on Nov. 1 regarding how to fix the mess in California.
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We said (and FERC was a little cranky about this) that we were pulling 300 MWs of power plants that we'd planned to build in California on the basis of the price cap proposal included in FERC's proposed order.
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It was in the press.
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So it was narrowly confined to the power plant proposals.
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Calpine subsequently announced that it, too, would pull the peaking plants it had planned to developed.
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I think that they announced the same amount would If you need anything else, don't hesitate to call.
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Best, Jeff
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Thanks for the heads up.
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I would like to attend the event with Secretary Summers.
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Hi Lisa: Just got a call from Rick.
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He said that 1) The meeting needs to be in San Francisco.
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2) The meeting needs to be on Dec. 5th.
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(Not the 29th or the 30th, as previously requested).
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3) The meeting is mandatory.
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I'll leave a message for Paul, too.
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If you have any questions, just give a ring.
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Best, Jeff
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Any luck getting on Mike's calendar.
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FYI: His name is spelled Mike Bentivoglio.
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that's great.
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glad to hear it.
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no thanks necessary.
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see you tomorrow.
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Got a call from Rick.
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Scheduling issues now make it necessary to have the meeting in San Francisco on Dec. 5th at 9 AM.
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Rick asked that folks make the meeting a priority.
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Best, Jeff
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Apologies but the meeting is going to be on Dec. 5th at 9 AM in San Francisco.
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This date should be pretty darned firm.
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Best, Jeff
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Left a message with the good doctor.
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Will let you know just as soon as I hear.
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Best, Jeff
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Can't thank you enough.
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Great report and I wish that I'd been there with you to experience it.
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I'd like to stay in touch.
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It's a high priority of mine to come down there (as I've mentioned a few times).
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I'm going to try and do it before the month's out.
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I hope we can have lunch or something and compare notes about all this stuff.
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This won't be going away for quite some time.
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Thanks again for your help.
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Best, Jeff
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I'll take a wild guess about what will be in the plan.
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1.
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Marshall Law 2.
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Nationalize the grid.
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3.
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International energy crimes trial.
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Dr. Littlechild.
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I'm very disappointed that our schedules seemed to pass in the night.
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I had an engagement on Monday night, which regrettably kept me from having dinner with the speakers.
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And Tuesday I was traveling.
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I tried to call the Claremont and had a dreadful time trying to leave you a message.
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If you haven't left the states yet, I would very much like to get together.
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Otherwise, I'll just have to come to London.
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I understand that David Teece has filled you in on our discussions.
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Would like to discuss that futher with you.
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It was a great pleasure to meet you, however briefly, and I hope that our paths cross again very soon.
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All the best, Jeff
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Sue: My understanding is that, based on the discussion that you and Steve and I had last week, you're going to set up a meeting with Tim to discuss this.
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Something we need to get our arms around fairly quickly.
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Any possibility of doing it on Monday?
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Best, Jeff
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B.O.
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you hearing any reviews?
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i think it opened this week, or last week?
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And I think Cameron's got it right, you guys on the 29th, me and P. Dub-yah on the 6th.
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Hey, I saw the menu that Nancy sent around.
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Is she cooking on her own birthday?
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Meeting from 11:30 to 12:30 but otherwise available.
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Nov 16,2000 California Power Plants Get Jolt As Natural-Gas Supplies Are Cut By Rebecca Smith Staff Reporter of The Wall Street Journal LOS ANGELES -- Southern California power plants, already stressed to their limits last summer, got another jolt this week as a cold snap caused a sharp curtailment of supplies of natural gas used to generate electricity.
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The power plants were able to switch to burning oil and continue to produce electricity.
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But the unusual curtailment of natural gas underlines concerns that an increased reliance on gas for power generation across the U.S. is putting the reliability of the nation's electricity supply at risk.
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That's because virtually all power plants now under construction in the U.S. burn gas and only gas.
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The units affected this week in San Diego were able to shift to oil only because they were older plants that originally were constructed to burn oil.
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Generators have been reluctant to add a dual-fuel flexibility to plants in recent years because oil is far more polluting than gas and generally has been costlier.
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In California, where gas-supply problems first surfaced on Monday in San Diego, there is pessimism about a Hydra-like energy crisis that seems to grow new heads every day.
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The state weathered three-dozen electrical emergencies last summer, caused by a shortage of electricity.
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