02/00: The Comptroller of the Treasury issued a report titled "The Potential
Impacts of Electric Industry Restructuring in Tennessee". The report stated
that Tennessee should be ready to join the national trend towards electric
industry restructuring. The study suggested that the Joint Study Commission
continue studying restructuring issues. If Tennessee decided to allow retail
competition, then the state should "move slowly in allowing competition,
possibly following the examples of Virginia and Pennsylvania in first pursuing
pilot projects." Also, "full retail competition was probably the
preferable approach," allowing residential consumers to participate.
02/99: Recommendations for restructuring including any proposed legislation
in Tennessee must have been made by February 28, 2001, when the General Assembly
Study Commission was scheduled to end.
01/99: The Tennessee Regulatory Authority released a report on deregulation
of the industry. The report identifies 10 issues: rates and prices; stranded
costs; reliability; market power; universal service; environmental concerns;
taxes; local rate setting; consumer education; and regulatory and legal issues.
06/98: The General Assembly Study Commission continued their study of restructuring
the electric industry into 1999.
05/98: The Department of Energy advisory committee on TVA issued a final report
calling for more regulation controls on TVA if national electric deregulation
began. It recommended TVA remain mainly in the "wholesale electric business."
04/98: TVA's distribution company customers with 10-year contracts can vary
the amount of purchased power and TVA would be allowed to recover any stranded
costs associated with the lost load. The distribution companies could buy power
from competitive wholesale suppliers, and TVA could sell outside its traditional
service territory.
02/98: TVA offered its 159 municipal and cooperative wholesale customers new
power-purchase contracts. To date, 86 were interested and 18 signed on. Under
the new contracts, distributors could give TVA five years (instead of the current
10) notice of intent to end power-purchase agreements.
06/97: The General Assembly created a special joint legislative committee
to study electricity deregulation. A report was scheduled for October 1998.
