Having committed to employing competition in the telecommunications local exchange carrier (LEC) market to elicit the broadest range of service offerings while ensuring fair rates, state commissions are now establishing regulations to put the new policies into effect. Current investigations focus on the proper costing and rate-setting methods for interconnection and transport services among newly competing carriers.
The Government of Mexico on November 8 revealed its new natural gas regulations at a special conference of industry executives in Mexico City. The new rules promote use of natural gas; create a competitive, market-driven gas industry; encourage private investment; enhance customer choice; and protect the environment. Private-sector transmission, distribution, and storage of gas were all previously controlled by the state.
Conference attendee Thomas A. Page (em chairman of San Diego Gas & Electric Co.
The New York Public Service Commission (PSC) has approved its first market-indexed incentive mechanism to encourage a local distribution company (LDC) to control gas-supply costs. Brooklyn Union Gas Co.'s modified proposal for a one-year pilot incentive mechanism employs an external index as a gas-cost target (the monthly closing natural gas contract price on the New York Mercantile Exchange), rather than a series of internal cost measures based on estimated fixed and variable costs.
In the second phase of the Pennsylvania Public Utility Commission's (PUC's) investigation into electric industry restructuring, Metropolitan Edison (ME) and Pennsylvania Electric (PE) have proposed a regional wholesale electricity market based on the Pennsylvania-New Jersey-Maryland power pool. All electric generators would sell into the market, which would function as a spot market, while accommodating bilateral contracts.
The pool would coordinate all power sales and purchases to assure the reliability and integrity of the regional electric grid.
Privatizing the grid doesn't appear to have hurt the United Kingdom any. Quite the contrary. When it comes to electricity, at least, Britannia still rules to some extent.
Industrial prices in the United Kingdom continue to be among the most competitive in the world, according to an Electricity Association (EA) survey. Industrial contract prices are now 49 percent cheaper than in Japan, and 41 percent less than in Germany. Average prices in Italy, Spain, and the United States are also more expensive.
PacifiCorp's wholly-owned subsidiaries, PacifiCorp Holdings, Inc. and PacifiCorp Australia Holdings Pty Ltd., have agreed to purchase Powercor, an electric utility in southeast Australia, for about $1.6 billion. Powercor is one of five distribution companies being sold by the State of Victoria in its first stage of privatizing distribution and generation utilities. Moody's Investors Service has placed the ratings of PacifiCorp and PacifiCorp Holdings on review for possible downgrade.
