“Are RTOs central planning entities subject to the Mises/Hayek/Lavoie critique of access, pricing, and service quality? Is the ‘knowledge problem’ and ‘fatal conceit’ a defining issue for RTOs/ISOs compared to a private sector, unregulated approach to power coordination?”
“Vernon Smith: I don’t know”
It is a strange world in which a classical liberal espousing F. A. Hayek tries to justify a “market” based on a systemic violation of property rights and governmental central planning for an enormous territorial grid.
But this is the case with Lynne Kiesling, and maybe even Nobel Laureate Vernon Smith. I’ll let the reader decide from this social media exchange:
Kiesling: I’m pleased to report a new publication in the journal Energies, “Opening Up Transactive Systems: Introducing TESS and Specification in a Field Deployment,” available to read below.…
Continue ReadingWho should manage and be accountable for electricity in Texas? Politicians and bureaucrats with special interests everywhere? Or corporations with their own capital on the line?
In light of the second anniversary of the Texas Power Crisis of February 2021 (see yesterday), the answer would seem obvious. Grade A corporations, with the legal responsibility to customers, not politicians.
I was reminded of this when I read a Fox News story (February 7, 2023), “Texas State Senator Arrested for Drunk Driving.” Charles Schwertner, a Republican, “was set to preside over a Senate committee meeting at 11 a.m. regarding Texas’ power grid and recent winter outages.”
Another news account stated:
… Continue ReadingSchwertner, who leads the Senate’s Business and Commerce Committee, was expected at the Capitol at 11 a.m.
“So here is the study that PUCT, FERC, Rice, UT, etc. do not want to do. It is very politically incorrect. Without wind and solar forcing, what would the wholesale margins have been, and how much thermal capacity would there have been? The study could do runs of wind/solar at 90% of the-then level … 75% …. 50% …. 25%.”
This exchange concerns a new University of Texas summary, “Two years after its historic deep freeze, Texas is increasingly vulnerable to cold snaps – and there are more solutions than just building power plants.” My interpretation—and policy recommendations—are exactly opposite of the UTA op-ed (see here), so I responded and was pleased to get some pushback from Professor Webber.
On LinkedIn, Webber wrote: “You might find our latest article to be of interest.…
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