Rethinking Electricity Deregulation

Proponents of free markets for electricity assert that minor fixes to the California market and to FERC's proposed Standard Market Design would generate lower prices. We disagree. Designing a competitive market that remedies the problems seen in California and other restructured markets is difficult; emulating even good ISOs like PJM will not do the job. Each one of the problems can be overcome, but the costs of doing so might make full deregulation unattractive.