Portland General Electric doesn't want to sell electricity anymore.
PGE, a wholly owned subsidiary of Enron, wants to focus on the transmission and distribution of electricity and has asked the Oregon Public Utilities Commission to allow all 670,000 of its customers to choose their electric provider.
It also has proposed a new way to calculate franchise fees in an unbundled environment.
In its customer choice proposal, PGE said restructuring had triggered the need for changes in the way franchise fees are calculated. Presently, franchise fees are collected through a contract as a percentage of the utility's gross revenues, less some adjustments. The gross revenues include the fully bundled revenues from energy, transmission and distribution. But that calculation will become more complicated as electric services become unbundled. PGE therefore proposes using an "energy proxy" for their calculation.