Energy Breach of Contract Case

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The defendant, an electric utility, retained Cornerstone Research to analyze transactions that took place during the California electricity crisis from 2000 through 2001.

The defendant, an electric utility, retained Cornerstone Research and Howard Pifer to analyze transactions that took place during the California electricity crisis from 2000 through 2001.

We worked with Dr. Pifer to calculate economic damages and allocate them among the plaintiffs—Pacific Gas and Electric, San Diego Gas and Electric, and Southern California Edison—and to other market participants. These calculations used our estimates of the utility’s average and marginal costs for supplying electricity into the California energy markets. Cornerstone Research collected and processed millions of data records for day-ahead, day-of, and real-time California energy markets. The damages calculations entailed analyzing detailed and complex bid, price, and settlement data for all participants in each market. Dr. Pifer filed three expert reports and was deposed. The case settled shortly before trial.