New Foundation to Sponsor Research on Competitive Markets

The Electric Markets Research Foundation has been formed to fund, "unbiased research that will examine the track records of centralized electricity markets and traditionally regulated markets in providing affordable and reliable supplies of power as well as meeting clean energy, transmission and environmental needs."

The foundation's president and the driving force behind the research effort is Bruce S. Edelston. From 2001 to 2008, Edelston was Director of the department responsible for developing Southern Company's positions and testimony on regulatory and policy issues and providing support for those positions to its Washington lobbyists and operating company regulatory and legislative representatives. He also chaired the Rates and Tariffs group for the SeTrans RTO development effort. Edelston is also President of the Energy Policy Group, a consulting firm.

"There is a dearth of research available on this market-versus-regulation debate and little analysis has been conducted on this 50-state experiment. The Electric Markets Research Foundation intends to address this by supporting research by academics and industry experts on major electric market issues, including customer rates, reliability and service," said Edelston.

The foundation said that its research will evaluate how the two markets are addressing policy issues important to consumers and critical to the economy, including capacity markets and building new generation; transmission build-out; the risk-reward relationships among customers, utilities and power suppliers; regulatory jurisdictional issues; and renewable energy production, use and integration, both centralized and distributed.

At present, the foundation has no plans to conduct its own research, but instead will fund academic and subject-area experts. The foundation said that it will be governed by an independent board of directors.

Funding for the foundation is expected to be provided by electric utilities, other foundations and contributions from individuals and interested industry stakeholders.

Other members of the foundation's board of directors aside from Edelston include Dr. Albert L. Danielsen, Executive Director of the Bonbright Center for Public Utilities, University of Georgia; Mark W. Menezes, Partner, Hunton & Williams; and George A. Ramonas, President, The Advocacy Group.