Wholesale Power Price Caps to Be Proposed

Edison International, owner of California’s No. 2 electric utility, will propose a decrease in wholesale power prices in the state, a company representative said. Edison plans to suggest that different parts of the day have different price caps for wholesale power, said spokesman Bob Foster; the caps would be based on the average prices for those parts of the day in 1998 and 1999. During the summer, the company’s Southern California Edison unit racked up more than $2 billion in “undercollections,” the difference between the record wholesale prices it paid and the retail rates it is allowed to charge customers. The proposal will be made Wednesday to the board of governors of the Independent System Operator, the agency that manages 75% of the state’s power grid.