DWP'S LEADER OPPOSES NATIONAL DEREGULATION.Byline: Bill Hillburg Washington Bureau WASHINGTON - General Manager David H. Wiggs said Thursday that the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power The Los Angeles Department of Water and Power (LADWP) is the largest municipal utility in the United States, serving 3.9 million residents in 2006. It was founded in 1902 to deliver water and electricity supplies to residents and businesses in Los Angeles. and its 1.4 million electricity customers will not be dragged into any federal deregulation Deregulation The reduction or elimination of government power in a particular industry, usually enacted to create more competition within the industry. Notes: Traditional areas that have been deregulated are the telephone and airline industries. scheme that could threaten financial health or service of the nation's largest city-owned utility. ``It's hard to take that leap after what we saw in California,'' Wiggs said of deregulation plans now before Congress. He also said the city would take legal action if an unworkable federal plan was imposed on the DWP DWP Department of Work and Pensions (UK) DWP Drinking Water Program DWP Dynamic Weapon Pricing (gamin, Counter-Strike: Source) DWP Department of Water & Power DWP Drinking Water Protection . Several measures would tie the city utility into a western states regional transmission organization  This August 2006 is in need of attention from an expert on the subject.Please help recruit one or [ improve this article] yourself. See the talk page for details. (RTO (Recovery Time Objective) The amount of time a computer system or application can stop functioning before it is considered intolerable to the enterprise. It can be computed to be from seconds to days, depending on how critical the application is to the organization. ) under the control of the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) is the United States federal agency with jurisdiction over electricity sales, wholesale electric rates, hydroelectric licensing, natural gas pricing, and oil pipeline rates. . ``We support open transmission provided it does not hurt our ability to serve our customers,'' he said during a break on a Capitol Hill lobbying effort. ``We'll take a look at deregulation, but our customers have no interest in giving up control of our transmission and generation.'' Wiggs also promised a full probe of charges, recently made by state Sen. Joseph Dunn, D-Garden Grove, that the DWP had engaged in illegal trading schemes and price gouging Noun 1. price gouging - pricing above the market price when no alternative retailer is available pricing - the evaluation of something in terms of its price while supplying power to the state's grid during last year's energy crisis. ``I do not believe that the department participated in any unlawful or Enron-style transactions,'' said Wiggs, who has hired an outside law firm to conduct an audit of DWP dealings with the state's energy market and report to Dunn's Select Committee to Investigate Price Manipulation of the Wholesale Energy Market. ``But if we find a problem, I'll make it right.'' Wiggs noted that DWP employees, unlike the energy traders at Enron and other private firms, had no reason to engage in gouging Gouging can be:
``We don't offer incentives, bonuses or promotions,'' he said. ``Our employees are civil servants.'' During the crisis, as rolling blackouts and spiraling prices hit California communities served by Southern California Edison Southern California Edison (or SCE Corp), the largest subsidiary of Edison International (NYSE: EIX), is the primary electricity supply company for much of Southern California. It provides 11 million people with electricity. and other investor-owned utilities, the DWP supplied $1 billion worth of excess electricity to the state grid, netting $300 million. ``That money didn't go to employees' bonuses,'' Wiggs said. ``It went into the system for new equipment and upgrades and to pay off debt. And a lot of it went to the city's general fund to support a number of activities.'' Wiggs' views on deregulation echoed those of predecessor David Freeman, who opted to keep the DWP, which generates its own power and controls its own transmission network, out of the state deregulation program that began in 1996. Freeman, now Gov. Gray Davis' chief energy adviser, expressed reservations at the time about what he saw as a flawed free market plan for electricity. Freeman was proven right by 2000, when the market went haywire. DWP customers were spared the ensuing rate hikes and blackouts. Wiggs, whose agency continues to sell excess power to the state, said he still has doubts about deregulation and a continuing push by President George W. Bush and his allies in Congress to reshape energy markets and delivery systems. |
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