A Power Supplier Fires Back

The Southern California Edison-commissioned “MIT study” told of finding evidence of energy withholding on the part of suppliers throughout the state [“Power Suppliers Accused of Manipulating Prices,” Nov. 23].

It’s what the study didn’t tell that was most interesting. For example, it didn’t acknowledge that suppliers went far beyond “utility standard,” working round-the-clock, fixing units that experts said couldn’t be fixed and returning units to service that could easily have sat broken for the entire summer.

Perhaps it would be too difficult to explain why someone would go to such extraordinary efforts if their real strategy was to fabricate a supply shortage.

Also missing are explanations as to why more impartial studies, based on more complete data, from agencies such as the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission and the California Power Exchange do not support the conclusions of the SCE study, nor do they find any specific evidence of market manipulation by suppliers such as Reliant Energy.

Reliant Energy is committed to California and to its consumers. We came to this state--encouraged by elected officials and regulators--to upgrade California’s aging power plants, run them cleaner and more efficiently and produce the power needed to keep California’s high-tech economy going.

We helped California ratepayers pay off $17 billion of stranded costs to the shareholders of SCE and other utilities. By committing nearly $80 million of expenditures on environmental upgrades and operational enhancements, we have met both the letter and the spirit of California’s quest for clean, reliable electricity.

We recognize that California’s energy situation is in a crisis stage. Pointing fingers or laying blame will not fix the problems. We at Reliant will work with the industry, the governor, regulators, legislators and consumer organizations to implement solutions--offering short-term fixes and long-term relief.

There must be increased supply built in the state in order to serve peak demand periods. The state’s utilities must better protect the financial needs of their customers by managing market risk, and the California Public Utilities Commission must allow them to enter into responsible long-term contracts, protecting their customers from volatile wholesale prices.

These are solutions that we look forward to helping put into place so California’s consumers gain the price stability they deserve.

JOHN STOUT

Vice president

Reliant Energy

Houston