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Fortnightly Magazine - July 1 1996

N.Y. Relaxes Regulation of AT&T

Finding the state's long-distance telecommunications market sufficiently competitive, the New York Public Service Commission (PSC) has relaxed price controls for AT&T Communications of New York, Inc., an interexchange carrier (IXC) currently regulated as a dominant provider of long-distance services. Under the settlement agreement, AT&T will freeze price floors and ceilings for basic long-distance service (message toll service, or "MTS") for five years and give customers a one-time rate reduction to reflect lower access charges AT&T must pay to local exchange carriers in the state.

Byline: 
Phillip S. Cross
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QF Fails to Raise Avoided Cost Rates

The West Virginia Public Service Commission (PSC) has ruled that it is preempted by federal law from modifying the avoided-cost rate in a purchased-power agreement implemented under the Public Utility Regulatory Policies Act of 1978 (PURPA).

The developers of a qualifying cogeneration facility (QF), Bituminous Power Partners, L.P., had asked the PSC to raise the contract rate for avoided energy in its purchased-power contract with Monongahela Power Co.

Byline: 
Phillip S. Cross
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Virginia Rejects IntraLATA Competition

The Virginia State Corporation Commission (SCC) has rejected a request from Bell Atlantic-Virginia, Inc., a telecommunications local exchange carrier (LEC), to reclassify intraLATA message toll service (MTS) as competitive under its new alternative regulation plan.

Byline: 
Phillip S. Cross
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States Prepare for Federal Telecom Mandates

To accommodate requirements imposed by the Telecommunications Act of 1996, the North Carolina Utilities Commission (NCUC) has issued a set of procedural requirements governing requests for interconnection services. According to the NCUC, the federal timeline for compulsory arbitration of differences arising during the course of interconnection negotiations could leave as little as 85 days to render a decision in each case.

Byline: 
Phillip S. Cross
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LECs Agree on Resale and Interconnection

The Florida Public Service Commission (PSC) has approved rates and conditions for interconnection between BellSouth Telecommunications, Inc., a local exchange carrier (LEC), and two new competitive providers of local exchange services, Metropolitan Fiber Systems of Florida, Inc. (MFS) and MCI Metro Access Transmission Services, Inc. (MCI). By a separate order, the PSC has adopted provisions for resale of BellSouth services by competing local service providers, including the unbundling of local service components.

Byline: 
Phillip S. Cross
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CPUC Embraces Marginal-cost Ratemaking

While designing rates for Southern California Edison Co., the California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) has reaffirmed its commitment to marginal-cost ratemaking "in light of electric industry restructuring." The CPUC used the cost-allocation and rate-design findings to set new rates based on an overall 4.4-percent decrease in revenues adopted in earlier revenue requirement proceedings.

Byline: 
Phillip S. Cross
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Montana PSC Limits LDC Rate Increase

The Montana Public Service Commission (PSC) has authorized Montana-Dakota Utilities Co., a natural gas local distribution company (LDC), to increase rates by $1.008 million. The increase includes an allowance for return on common equity of 12 percent. The PSC permitted the new rates to enable the LDC to recover the entire nongas cost increase from the residential customer class. It refused, however, to approve rate rebalancing to shift an additional $1.5 million of revenue requirement to the residential class without a thorough study of both gas and nongas costs.

Byline: 
Phillip S. Cross
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Off Peak

A few utility executives claim to sleep untroubled by the future of their companies. Most, however, admit to some tossing and turning engendered by concern over competition and the complacency of coworkers.

What, if anything, are they doing about it?

A survey of 117 PUBLIC UTILITIES FORTNIGHTLY subscribers reveals that American utility executives are asking themselves all the tough questions about the future of their operations. It also reveals a widespread sense of urgency in the search for answers.

Byline: 
Geoffrey M. Edelman, and C. Richard Gwinn
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Munis See the Lite

The search for cheaper electricity is in full swing, from the East Coast to the West.

Orange and Rockland Utilities, Inc. of Pearl River, NY, proposes that 1,500 residential customers, along with industrial and commercial businesses, be allowed to pick their electric power supplier. The proposal, called "PowerPick," has been endorsed by New York Public Service Commission staff, the Industrial Energy Users Association, and the state Consumer Protection Board.

Byline: 
Joseph F. Schuler, Jr.
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A Champion for Public Power

Soft-spoken, but no featherweight,

APPA Director Alan Richardson will fight

toe-to-toe with well-heeled

adversaries. If he were a boxer, his name might be Alan "The Right" Richardson.

The executive director of the American Public Power Association (APPA) always toes the canvas, swinging for equity for his 1,750 members, shadowing its "heavyweight" adversaries, investor-owned electric utilities (IOUs).

Byline: 
Joseph F. Schuler, Jr.
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