Integrating Independent Power Producers Into Emerging Wholesale Power Markets

Policymakers wishing to introduce wholesale competition into the electricity industry must often reconcile existing independent power producer contracts with new market structures and trading arrangements. For the new market arrangements to bring the benefits of competition to consumers, enough participants must be willing to take market risk. A combination of measures (adaptation of specific market rule, contractual alternatives for enhancing market liquidity, contract buyout provisions, transitional mechanisms) offer promise for reconciling existing contracts with new market structures and reducing the magnitude of above-market costs associated with the contracts.