Update on the Impact of Electricity Market Competition in the USA on the Nuclear Industry

The move to deregulate electricity markets in the United States has accelerated to almost fever pitch. In 1996, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) required all interstate public electricity utilities to permit third parties access to regulated utilities ’ transmission systems. In late December 1999, FERC took deregulation one step further, by issuing a rule requiring utilities to submit proposals for participation in Regional Transmission Organisations (RTOs). All fifty states, plus the District of Columbia, have investigated the feasibility of retail competition, and forty-six are moving forward, albeit with varying degrees of intensity.1 In such a rapidly changing environment, the nuclear industry must work to remain competitive with other forms of electricity generation. The industry’s ability to do so in the new millennium, in both the short term and the long term, is dependent upon several different factors. An evaluation of these challenges forms the substance of this paper. Federal Regulatory Backgroun