Not unless it involves communication between companies. Then it's collusion.
The real market manipulation was what created the shortage of generating capacity that made these games even possible. It took twenty years to accomplish and when "deregulation" was initiated it merely turned into the payoff. TURN, the Sierra Club, and the NRDC are the key players who funded and organized the NIMBY groups that prevented plant construction. Bryson was there all the way along. So far, I have not found detailed information re what Gray Davis was doing after he left Jerry Brown's Administration and before he became Controller besides holding office as an assemblyman.