Fortnightly Magazine - October 15 1996

One thing that adds some fun to my job (notice, I did not say that my job is fun) is the chance to compare similarities between the gas and electric markets.

The Virginia State Corporation Commission has authorized Virginia Electric and Power Co. to suspend a pilot program for its Standby Generation Control System. (For prior ruling approving the program, see Re Virginia Electric Power Co., 162 PUR4th 363 (Va.S.C.C. 1995).)

The approved pilot authorized the utility to install control equipment on a mixture of customer- and utility-owned generators. Virginia Power would then operate the control system to provide extra generation during peak.

The Ohio Public Utilities Commission (PUC) has authorized Ohio Edison Co. to begin a real-time pricing (RTP) experiment that will test customer response to hourly price signals. The program allows customers to shift usage to a lower-price period or to add usage during lower-price periods.

Participation is limited to large usage customer classes. The program rate is designed so that if a customer's actual and historical usage patterns match, the bill will be the same as if the customer was not on the RTP program. Re Ohio Edison Co., Case No. 96-436-EL-ATA, Aug.

Mid-American Power, LLC has bought a 53-Mw, coal-fired generating plant, put it on the power grid, and plans to convert the facility into a 300-Mw, gas-fired, combined-cycle plant. Mid-American bought the E.J. Stoneman Station in Cassville, WI, from Dairyland Power Cooperative after almost two years of negotiations. The companies making up Mid-American include Power Systems, Ltd., Burns & McDonnell Engineering, Inc., and WPS-Power Development, Inc. The plant supplies energy to two regional utilities.