Business Wire
William Catacosinos has resigned as chairman of MarketSpan Corp., the utility formed to replace the troubled Long Island Lighting Co. Catacosinos is under investigation by the New York attorney general due to a $42-million severance payment as part of the buyout of LILCO by the New York government-run Long Island Power Authority (see Public Utilities Fortnightly, August 1998, p.28).
SCT Utility Systems Inc., signed a software and services agreement worth about $13 million with the city of Seattle for the BANNER Customer Management System. The agreement will aid the city's efforts to consolidate services for the 450,000 customers of Seattle City Light, which provides electrical services, and Seattle Public Utilities which provides water, wastewater, drainage, sewage, flood control and recycling services.
Duke Energy recently installed an automatic teller machine that accepts bill payments at one of its customer service offices. It plans to add three more in other locations. Customers insert their utility bill and punch in a personal code. After the ATM recognizes their account, the customer will deposit their payment amount. The terminals cost $28,000 to $35,000 each. The Salt River Project already operates seven payment terminals, four of them accessible 24 hours a day. The company wants to add 11 more.