Preferences

CTRL+F 'Enron' 0 results.

Don't really trust something advocating for deregulated energy markets to not mention the elephant in the room.


Deregulation is such a funny word. The California deregulation you are referring to, involved the powers that be pushing utility companies to sell their power plants.

The current energy deregulation in the EU involves forcing utilities to trade electricity in a spot market, that treats the on-demand production of conventional power plants and the random and unpredictable production of solar and wind, as if it's completely equivalent. Of course, that's a fairly effective way to promote solar, as it's far more intrusive than conventional renewable mandates.

As far as I can see, "deregulation" means, "we regulate far more aggressively than before, but there's now a market in there where Wall Street types can make money".

> The current energy deregulation in the EU involves forcing utilities to trade electricity in a spot market, that treats the on-demand production of conventional power plants and the random and unpredictable production of solar and wind, as if it's completely equivalent.

The California case also forced utilities to trade electricity in a spot market. These markets always seem oriented towards purchasing power rather than capacity, which strikes me as odd. Power companies need committed capacity, because they need to have reserves of power. Sure, buying electricity that no one else is using makes sense, but because demand is comparatively inelastic, it's just crazy to have that be how companies ensure they have sufficient capacity.

In the EU there are fundings for strategic reserves in various countries that coal/gas/nuclear/geothermal/biogas plants receive.
Enron was the result accounting fraud, not energy market regulation or lack of it.
Enron had multiple scandals. A big one was all about deregulation and manipulation of the California electricity market.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enron

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/2000%E2%80%932001_California...

Lol their bankruptcy was. Read up on it or watch the documentary.
Yeah he even has a section about deregulation problems in Texas and California... then talks only about wildfires in 2020.

Deregulating an industry to achieve a specific goal is certainly one approach.

the big issue with enron was semi-fraudulent accounting, not market manipulation. the stuff they puleld in cali was pretty slimy but i don't think something nearly thirty years old needs mention. any more than it does if a company wants to use mark-to-market accounting.
Nothing has changed in twenty years. Texans still hate California, businesses still exploit people for profit.
Sorry, Enron was rigging brownouts to seek profit. How many people do you think these brownouts killed? That goes well beyond "pretty slimy."

This item has no comments currently.

Keyboard Shortcuts

Story Lists

j
Next story
k
Previous story
Shift+j
Last story
Shift+k
First story
o Enter
Go to story URL
c
Go to comments
u
Go to author

Navigation

Shift+t
Go to top stories
Shift+n
Go to new stories
Shift+b
Go to best stories
Shift+a
Go to Ask HN
Shift+s
Go to Show HN

Miscellaneous

?
Show this modal