News from the Oklahoma Corporation
Commission
Phone: (405)
522-2100, FAX: (405) 522-1623, www.occ.state.ok.us
June 8, 2001
COMMISSION
SPONSORED OAK RIDGE NATIONAL LABORATORY STUDY OF THE IMPACT OF ELECTRIC
RESTRUCTURING ON OKLAHOMA PRESENTED TO COMMISSIONERS
(OKLAHOMA CITY) – Under
sponsorship of the Oklahoma Corporation Commission, the prestigious Oak Ridge
National Laboratory (ORNL), a U.S. Department of Energy owned laboratory, at
Oak Ridge, Tennessee has presented the first phase of a two phase study on the
impact of electric restructuring on Oklahoma’s economy.
ORNL spokesman S.W. Hadley,
who made the presentation, said the study “looked at the state as a whole”
evaluating market and regulated prices. Hadley said if the electric generation
market was deregulated under today’s higher natural gas prices residential
customers would pay two cents more per 1,000 Kilowatt hours (kwh) or an extra
$20 per month.
Commissioner Denise Bode
said, “The purpose of building this independent model of our energy market in
Oklahoma begun early last year was to provide a better tool to evaluate
proposals of the industry and policymakers on Oklahomans and the Oklahoma
economy. The first phase established the energy model of Oklahoma and then
tested the immediate deregulation of electric generation. With today’s market
prices it predicted an 18% or $486-million increase in electric prices for
Oklahoma. For the average customer that breaks down to a 12% or $20 a month
increase for residential, 18% or $36 a month for commercial and a 28% or over
$1,000 a month increase for industrial customers.” She added, “This model
developed by Oak Ridge, one of the U.S. government’s most prestigious labs, will
also be an important energy planning tool for Oklahoma to determine the impact
of new generation, need for transmission and other energy management tools in
the future.”
“Establishing a baseline
model is important,” said Commission Chair Bob Anthony. “As part of the team
determining the best public policy for Oklahoma, we feel it is very helpful to
create an unbiased model that will allow decision makers to test and understand
the consequences of various options as they evaluate how best to proceed in this
complicated area.”
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Page 2, Oak Ridge model
Calling the study a
“snapshot of Oklahoma,” Hadley said the study model also used data from the
Southwest Power Pool which includes Oklahoma, Texas and other surrounding
states.
The first phase of the study
built an econometric model specifically designed for Oklahoma to take a close
look at the energy market in the near-term using recent 1999 figures on
generation and customer demand. Phase II, expected by September, will provide a
longer-term analysis reaching ten years into the future by incorporating the
potential for new generation resources, transmission and customer responses.
-occ-