GlobeSt.com began reporting in July that many Southland office buildings and other businesses were suffering power outages, as temperatures soared and electricity to many buildings was shut down. The power shortage knocked out thousands of computers, hundreds of elevators and even the cash registers at many convenience stores.

The new study, though funded by SCE, was led by the director of the highly regarded MIT Center for Energy and Environmental Policy Research. It finds that plant owners and electricity resellers were able to boost their profits dramatically at the start of the summer by cutting back operations at some plants, creating artificial shortages that allowed them to charge higher prices in California's recently deregulated energy market.

The report itself doesn't estimate how much commercial landlords and homeowners lost. But separately, the state's Public Utilities Commission says its own analysis indicates that users were overcharged more than $4 billion.

Officials at some of California's smaller energy providers weren't available for comment on the SCE report late Friday, part of the long Thanksgiving weekend. But the new report seems certain to add to the anger and frustration of many Southland power users, some of whom tell GlobeSt.com that their energy bills have more than doubled over the past few months.

Want to continue reading?
Become a Free ALM Digital Reader.

Once you are an ALM Digital Member, you’ll receive:

  • Breaking commercial real estate news and analysis, on-site and via our newsletters and custom alerts
  • Educational webcasts, white papers, and ebooks from industry thought leaders
  • Critical coverage of the property casualty insurance and financial advisory markets on our other ALM sites, PropertyCasualty360 and ThinkAdvisor
NOT FOR REPRINT

© 2024 ALM Global, LLC, All Rights Reserved. Request academic re-use from www.copyright.com. All other uses, submit a request to [email protected]. For more information visit Asset & Logo Licensing.