whether it is spending on transmission or generation is a fiction dictated by the regulator
That’s the key place where we disagree: my understanding is that the “generation” charges are actual money leaving the utility for a competitive market, and this is a real division.
The transmission utility is not purely a transmission company. It spends money on both generation and transmission. Some generation charges leave to other companies. This is not a competitive market, but even if it were, it would only give you a bound on the cost of generation and tell you nothing about the cost of transmission.
That’s the key place where we disagree: my understanding is that the “generation” charges are actual money leaving the utility for a competitive market, and this is a real division.
The transmission utility is not purely a transmission company. It spends money on both generation and transmission. Some generation charges leave to other companies. This is not a competitive market, but even if it were, it would only give you a bound on the cost of generation and tell you nothing about the cost of transmission.