right safety net, The

Electric Perspectives, Mar/Apr 2002 by Jurewitz, John L, Mealiea, Wallace

An emergency default service can and should be made available to bridge service for customers who are temporarily "orphaned" by their retailers. Furthermore, it may make sense to adopt a gradually deregulated transitional service that sunsets on a certain date in the not too distant future (e.g., five years). However, broadly offering a regulated default service on a continuing long-run basis is a policy that seems unsustainable and ill advised. Instead, for each major class of customers, regulators need to decide either to embrace retail competition fully or continue with exclusive regulated retail service. A market cannot survive and thrive half-regulated and half-free.

John Jurewitz is director of regulatory policy at Southern California Edison.