A Texas court has issued an interim order in the dispute between Central and South West Corp. and El Paso Electric Co. over their failed merger, ruling that Central and South West must pay El Paso a $25-million termination fee.

The proposed merger had been announced in 1993 and was terminated in 1995. Both companies had sued each other in a consolidated proceeding.

Chief Judge Larry Kelly of the U.S. Bankruptcy Court of the Western District also ruled that Central and South West may owe El Paso "interest-carry" costs alleged by El Paso at $18 million.

Pennsylvania Administrative Law Judge Louis Cocheres has recommended that the Public Utility Commission should deny a request by PECO Energy Co. to recover stranded costs from ratepayers through a surcharge over 10 years.

Pennsylvania State Sen. Vincent Fumo (D) had intervened in the proceeding against PECO's request. Fumo claims the ruling is significant because it points out that customers should not receive the financial benefits of deregulation if PECO is allowed to impose the surcharge.

"Although the final decision is still in the hands of the commission ...

Duff & Phelps Credit Rating Co. has released a report advising that a properly structured plan for securitization of stranded utility investment should address third-party credit risk.

Enron Corp. has acquiesced to a demand from the Oregon Public Utility Commission for $141 million in rate cuts as a condition to approval of the proposed merger between Enron and Portland General Corp.

The PUC staff had informed Enron in March that it would not approve the merger, based on Enron's proposed $61-million rate cut, and said it would only accept $141 million in guaranteed cost savings and rate cuts.

The trade-off is that shareholders of Portland General will receive less for their stock than Enron originally had offered.

Allegheny Power System Inc. will merge with DQE Inc., parent company of Duquesne Light Co., to form Allegheny Energy, which will save both companies about $1 billion over the next 10 years.

The new company will have a total market capitalization of $10.6 billion: $6.2 billion in equity and $4.4 billion in net debt and preferred stock.

"Allegheny Power is a winter-peaking operation: Its low-cost, efficient operations and suburban and rural customer mix fit well with our summer-peaking operation and urban customer base," said David Marshall, President and CEO of DQE.

Jay L. Witkin replaces Jerome Feit, who retired, as the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission's solicitor. Also at the FERC, Judith Ann Dowd will serve as an administrative law judge. Dowd joins the FERC from the National Labor Relations Board.

PacifiCorp hired John Carr as assistant v.p., global industrial sales. Carr joins PacifiCorp from Direct Services Industries, where he served as an executive director.

Melissa L. Reese was hired by CMS Marketing, Services and Trading as a natural gas trader. CMS Marketing is the energy marketing unit for CMS Energy Corp.

More than a decade ago, working at the energy laboratory at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, the late Fred Schweppe devised a novel scheme for pricing electric transmission. His solution? Do nothing. Simply ignore transmission.

Can NERC Juggle All Three En Route to Open Access?

At the year's start, the North American Electric Reliability Council decided to leave its "peer pressure" policy behind and require mandatory compliance with its reliability standards. As NERC grapples with its new policy, Public Utilities Fortnightly asked eight industry representatives how they might ensure reliability in a restructured electric industry.

It had taken time for NERC to arrive at this point, but itÆs official: Mandatory sanctions and business incentives will soon be used to enforce compliance.

A recent conversation:

"When was the demise of the regulatory bargain? What you say is true, but at some point you had to know the bargain was over."

(em A state utility commissioner

"Beats me, it doesn't seem to be over yet. The electric industry still has a duty to serve all customers, and it must charge below-market rate confiscatory for many of our services because of the regulatory bargain.

Touted as a panacea for stranded costs, securitization would forever shield rates from market scrutiny.

We consumers display an amazing talent to squander the fruits of our labor on the whim of the moment. Examples might include bungee jumping, vanity license plates or pet rocks. Or just about anything you might find in a magazine stuffed in the back of an airline seat.

Now make way for electric utility restructuring, where the latest fashion calls for securitization of uneconomic costs.