Too many rules can make any plant uncompetitive.

Now, more than ever, the commission must weigh

the costs when it looks at health and safety, decommissioning and antitrust impacts. Nuclear assets seem to pop to the surface wherever one looks for causes behind the current upheaval in the U.S. electric utility industry. The nuclear experience (em with its costly prudence reviews so prevalent during the 1980s (em has helped fuel a major shift in attitude.

Senior utility managers have now come to accept fundamental changes in the electric industry.

Do mergers and "critical mass" really make a difference? The answer, it seems, is yes.

To become more competitive, U.S. electric utilities have embarked on a quest in recent years to improve operational efficiency and factor productivity. The question is: Are utilities making progress? And, which companies have gained a competitive edge? Which have not?

Industry analysts have long argued that given the structure of the markets they serve and their cost-based, rate-setting procedures, electric utilities tend toward monopolistic behavior.

Can utilities learn to deliver?

Selling electricity is not like selling a pair of sneakers. Electricity is a product consumers can neither see, feel nor smell. Try it on? Go for a test drive? Not hardly. So how does an electric utility make its product appealing to consumers?

Some say it all comes down to price. A penny saved is a penny earned. But what about tenths of a penny? Do consumers know or even care what they pay for a kilowatt-hour? Just keeping the lights on seems enough for most.

Anticipating the opening of the retail electricity market, MidAmerican Energy Co.

The Pennsylvania Public Utility Commission has issued a set of guidelines for the development of "enforceable" tariffs that seek to limit a utility's liability to consumers for damages associated with the provision of utility services.

It directed the state's utilities to make sure that tariffs waiving liability are consistent with six principles:

1) Events covered lie within the commission's expertise and are subject to its ratemaking authority.

2) Limitations on liability may apply in case of interrupted service or property damage only and not personal injury.

The Washington Utilities and Transportation Commission has authorized the merger of Puget Sound Power & Light Co. and Washington Natural Gas Co.

The merged company will be renamed Puget Sound Energy, to operate as a combined electric and gas utility headquartered in Bellevue, Wash.

Under the settlement agreement, general rates for natural gas will remain unchanged until Jan. 1, 1999. Electric rates will be lowered between 1.9 percent and 6.3 percent, depending on customer class.

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia has affirmed a 1995 order by the Interstate Commerce Commission (now the Surface Transportation Board) approving the merger of two major railways serving the western U.S., despite claims by several electric utilities that the merger would result in unfair rail prices.

The appeals court rejected claims by the electric utilities that the ICC should have assigned trackage rights and imposed rate caps while approving the merger of Burlington Northern Inc. and The Atchinson, Topeka and Santa Fe Railway Co.

The Missouri Public Service Commission has approved the merger of Union Electric Co. and CIPSCO Inc., if Union Electric meets certain requirements, such as helping to form an independent system operator for the region's transmission system.

The formation of the ISO must be consistent with guidelines established by the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission. The proposed merger will include the formation of a new entity, Ameren Corp., as a federally regulated public utility holding company.

Acquisition Premium.

Sound bites from state and federal regulators.

Green Pricing. Michigan allows Detroit Edison Co. to expand its existing experimental photovoltaic "green pricing" program, finding current solar capacity fully subscribed, with a waiting list for new participants. Case No. U-10893, March 27 1997 (Mi.P.S.C.).

NUG Contracts. Virginia permits Delmarva Power & Light Co. to amend purchased power contract with Star Enterprises, its principal nonutility supplier, by suspending capacity supply and payment obligations through May 31, 2000. Case No.

Five utility companies have filed a lawsuit in U.S. District Court in Birmingham against the Tennessee Valley Authority to bar it from making sales to unauthorized third parties for resale outside TVA's service territory, claiming such sales violate the TVA Act.

"TVA is under more intense attack from private utilities than at any time in its history," said TVA Chair Craven Crowell at an April 15 at a meeting of the TVA Caucus in Washington, D.C.

The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission and the Maryland Public Service Commission have approved the merger of Baltimore Gas and Electric Co. and Potomac Electric Power Co. to form Constellation Energy Corp.

However, the stiff terms for approval (em including mandatory rate cuts (em have prompted the utilities to claim they might abandon the merger.