[snopercod]

Electric power is either instantaneously available from the generating source, or it is not. It is not an item that can be "exported", then re-imported for profit.

Not true for several reasons. In the first place, it's not available instantanteously. When you turn on a light in your home, some spinning generator somewhere bogs down just a teeny bit. Sensing this, it's control system orders a fuel valve to open just enough to provide you the extra 100 Watts.

This takes a finite amount of time, from a few seconds in the case of a gas-turbine, so several hours in the case of a nuclear plant.

In the second place, to keep the grid stable, there must be spinning reserves on line to pick up the slack in case of a sudden increase of load. These generators aren't pumping any power at all into the grid, but are being paid for being there if needed, just like...say...EMS Techs at the fire station.

In the third place, electricity is fungible. There is no way to tell which electron in your microwave was produced in which power plant. Generators all pump power into the grid (usually), and consumers take it out. The generators read their electric meters to know how much power they put in, and consumers read their meters to know how much they took out, but nobody knows where those pesky electrons happend to travel along the way. Think of it as a big lake with water coming in and going out at the same time.

So on paper, it's possible for a generator in California who finds itself producing an excess of power, to sell that excess power to New Mexico, and then someone in New Mexico to sell the same power back to California a few minutes later.

I don't see any value in having "traders" either. They don't actually build power plants, generate or transmit electricity. They're merely middlemen who add cost to the power bill.

Then of course you buy all your food products directly from the farmer, and fill up your tank at the refinery, right?

[lewislynn]

So on paper, it's possible for a generator in California who finds itself producing an excess of power, to sell that excess power to New Mexico, and then someone in New Mexico to sell the same power back to California a few minutes later.

Maybe you haven't been paying attention. We were told we had a power shortage, now you (the power industry apologist?) are saying we had enough excess to send to New Mexico at the same time we weren't capable of producing enough.

We had power going back and forth across the western states, but somehow couldn't be delivered to the unsuspecting consumer untill it went from here to New Mexico and then back....AT AN ARTIFICIALLY INFLATED RATE.