Industries
Electric Competition
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National policy for many years has been, and continues to be, to foster competition in wholesale power markets. In each major energy bill over the last few decades, Congress has acted to open up the wholesale electric power market by facilitating entry of new generators to compete with traditional utilities. As the third major federal law enacted in the last 30 years to embrace wholesale competition, the Energy Policy Act of 2005 strengthened the legal framework for continuing wholesale competition as federal policy for this country. The Commission has acted quickly and strongly over the years to implement this national policy.
The Commission's core responsibility is to "guard the consumer from exploitation by non-competitive electric power companies." The Commission has always used the following two general approaches to meet this responsibility:
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Regulation - was the primary approach for most of the last century and remains the primary approach for wholesale transmission service.
Competition - has been the primary approach in recent years for wholesale generation service.
Advances in technology, exhaustion of economies of scale in most electric generation, and new federal and state laws have changed the Commission's views of the right mix of these two approaches. The Commission's goal has always been to find the best possible mix of regulation and competition to protect consumers from the exercise of monopoly power.
Timeline | |||||||||||||
2009 | 2008 | 2007 | 2006 | 2005 | 1999 | 1996 | 1992 | ||||||
July 16, 2009 FERC issued Order No. 719-A ![]() |
October 17, 2008
FERC issued Order No. 719 ![]() |
February 22, 2008 FERC issued a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking ![]() |
June 22, 2007 FERC issued an Advance Notice of Proposed Rulemaking ![]() |
February 15, 2007 FERC issued Order No. 890, a final rule reforming its decade-old open-access transmission regulatory framework that will ensure transmission service is provided on a nondiscriminatory and just and reasonable basis, as well as provide for more effective regulation and transparency in the operation of the transmission grid. |
August 2006 FERC staff issues the Assessment of Demand Respond & Advanced Metering ![]() |
July 20, 2006 FERC issues two major orders stemming from EPAct 2005. In Order No. 681 FERC finalized guidelines for independent transmission organizations to follow in developing proposals to provide long-term firm transmission rights in organized electricity markets. In Order No. 679 FERC finalized rules to bolster investment in the nation’s aging transmission infrastructure, and to promote electric power reliability and lower costs for consumers, by reducing transmission congestion. |
December 16, 2005 FERC issues Order No. 668, which amended FERC’s regulations to update the accounting requirements for public utilities and licensees, including RTOs and ISOs. |
August 8, 2005 The President signed into law the Energy Policy Act of 2005, which reaffirmed a commitment to competition in wholesale power markets as national policy. Act of 2005 (EPAct 2005) |
December 20, 1999 FERC issued Order No. 2000 ![]() |
FERC issued a series of orders designed to foster competition through better access to transmission facilities, namely Order No. 888. |
October 24, 1992 The President signed into law the Energy Policy Act of 1992 ![]() |
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