Fortnightly Magazine - March 15 1995

The Tennessee Public Utilities Commission (PUC) has opened a generic proceeding to establish a policy governing recovery of Order 636 pipeline transition costs by natural gas local distribution companies (LDCs). The PUC noted that one LDC, Nashville Gas Co., is currently recovering costs from all customer classes based on total system throughput, but has agreed to halve the charge for interruptible customers. Other LDCs use different methods to assess the costs to customers.

The Wisconsin Public Service Commission (PSC) has moved one step closer to competition, meeting with electric utility representatives to explain the restructuring. Commissioner Scott Neitzel, who will oversee the process, plans to convene an 18-member committee, representing various interests, to recommend ways of introducing competition. Neitzel maintains that all customer classes will either benefit or be held harmless by the changes.

Eugene P. Coyle works as an energy analyst for Toward Utility Rate Normalization (TURN), a consumer advocacy group in California that claims 30,000 members.

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The January mini-forum failed to discuss a key underlying assumption made by PoolCo proponents. The assumption is that price competition will really exist in tomorrow's wholesale electric market.

The Pennsylvania Commonwealth Court has overturned and remanded parts of a ruling by the Pennsylvania Public Utility Commission (PUC) that allows electric companies to impose rate surcharges to recover costs associated with demand-side management (DSM) programs, including lost revenues and incentives for program performance. The court ruled that state law limits recovery of incentives or the costs of physical facilities to base rate proceedings.