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Fortnightly Magazine - July 15 1997

Securitization: It Can Work

I was surprised and disappointed at the limited and unbalanced perspective that Bruce Radford brought to his comments on securitization ("Wall Street's New Game," PUBLIC UTILITIES FORTNIGHTLY, April 15, 1997, p. 4).

The article implies that the push for securitization legislation is being driven by the investment community's desire to create an investment product with a guaranteed return.

Byline: 
Howard Shapiro
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Electric vs. Gas Cont...

Mr. Lindsay's March 1 letter (PUBLIC UTILITIES FORTNIGHTLY, p. 6) requires some further discussion. We do agree that reducing cooling seasonal peak electric demand is desirable. Lessening the electric infrastructure's environmental effects and electric system failures, as we witnessed in the summer of 1996, is to the public good. However, thermal storage systems have siting issues and the potential to run out of capacity at the worst possible time on peak days.

Byline: 
Dr. William Ryan; and Ed Reid
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Does Activity-Based Cost Management Have Any Relevance for Electricity?

When viewed as serving market segments, utilities differ little from manufacturing companies, where most costs are shared among products and processes.

Activity-based cost management has had a tremendous impact on manufacturing enterprises; and its use has spread to some service industries such as banking, insurance and health care. ABCM encompasses two well-known management concepts: activity-based costing and activity-based management. Now that electric utilities are gearing up for competition, it is time to ask if ABCM has any relevance in the public utility industry.

Byline: 
Sidney J. Baxendale, and Michael J. Spurlock
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