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.
Virginia Corporation Commission staff have discovered that Virginia Power Co. (VP) customers overpaid $11 million for fuel under a renegotiated coal-hauling contract with CSX Transportation. Without corrective action, VP would continue to bill ratepayers for excessive fuel payments through 2000, when the contract expires.
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.
Alex Henney is associated with Energy Economic Engineering Ltd. in London, and has consulted in many countries. As early as February 1987, Henney advocated competitively restructuring the electricity supply industry and incorporating a pool as a real-time spot market. He is the author of A Study of the Privatisation of the Electricity Supply Industry in England and Wales.
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Last year, the Norwegian Market Co. decided to stick with bilateral trading and a spot market.
Centerior Energy Co. (CE) has signed a power-marketing agreement with Citizens Lehman Power L.P. to make long-term power sales outside of CE's Northern Ohio service territories. CE will make available 550 megawatts of generating capacity from five presently idle fossil-fuel plants. This capacity will support the development of a number of "creative" wholesale power sales packages. The plants, owned by CE subsidiaries, are Cleveland Electric Illuminating Co.'s Lake Shore Plant and Toledo Edison's Acme Station. (em LB
W. Lynn Garner is senior writer and Lori A.
The District of Columbia Public Service Commission (PSC) will permit Washington Gas Light Co., a natural gas local distribution company (LDC), to continue collecting Order 636 pipeline transition charges through its purchased-gas adjustment clause (PGA), but "questions" whether the costs should become a standard PGA element. The PSC set the matter aside for further review, voicing concern over the "potentially unchecked magnitude" of the costs absent regulatory oversight.
