Resolving a new issue now arising under fuel cost adjustment clauses, the North Carolina Utilities Commission has ruled that electric utilities who buy wholesale power from marketers should treat 75 percent of the energy price component as a "fuel cost," in those instances where the seller cannot or will not provide actual fuel cost data.
The case involved Duke Power Co., which had purchased power from Enron for resale.
The Pennsylvania Public Utility Commission has ended the summer with a series of rulings to guide the state's electric utilities as they devise individual restructuring plans. Overall, the rules seek to temper the effect of competition on certain consumer safeguards and social benefit programs.
Public Purpose Programs. Under new PUC guidelines, electric distribution companies must submit comprehensive, multi-year plans for universal service and energy conservation.
In a long-awaited opinion, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit has ruled that the Federal Communications Commission exceeded its authority in approving pricing regulations to open the telecommunications local exchange market to competition.
The court upheld, however, major portions of the FCC regulations governing the duty owned by incumbent local exchange carriers to provide access to the public switched network for new market entrants.
Over the summer, a handful of states approved gas pilot programs that will introduce choice of supplier to residential, and small commercial customers in preparation for the heating season. The decisions welcome the expansion of customer choice to smaller users, but pay careful attention to operational details such as who controls storage and upstream pipeline capacity to performance balancing services.
New Jersey. Finding greater than expected public interest, the New Jersey Board of Public Utilities has authorized New Jersey Natural Gas Co.
Sound bites from state and federal regulators.
Electric Exit Fees. New Jersey board exempts General Motors Corp. from any exit fees imposed in the future to collect electric utilities' stranded costs, in connection with GM's plans to build a $2.2-million gas-fired cogeneration facility (PURPA-qualified) at its Linden auto assembly plant. GM said it had checked all laws and regulations and had found no current obligation to pay exit fees. Docket No. ET96090669, June 24, 1997 (N.J.B.P.U.).
Residential Gas Rates. Arkansas OKs settlement allowing Arkansas Oklahoma Gas Corp.
No clear signal as yet from new chair James Hoecker.
The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission had a busy day on July 30, but observers will have to wait until the fall to learn of any new wide-ranging policy initiatives planned by incoming chair James Hoecker, who has now succeeded Elizabeth Moler in the top post.
The end-of-summer meeting (em and Commissioner Donald F. Santa Jr.'s last (em was marked largely by a lack of controversy.
To the discomfort of my predilections, I cannot deny that which is just.
In the June 1 issue of PUBLIC UTILITIES FORTNIGHTLY, Ken Rose ("Securitization of Uneconomic Costs: Whom Does It Secure?" p.
Northeast Utilities Co. has reached an agreement in principle with its shareholders who had claimed that certain NU trustees and officers had failed to manage prudently the affairs of the utility, causing problems for its nuclear power program.
The settlement calls for insurers of those trustees and officers named in the suit to pay NU $25 million, less attorney's fees. NU has agreed to certain corporate governance changes. The agreement was reached after more than eight months of mediation by retired U.S. District Judge Robert C.
Five utilities suing the Tennessee Valley Authority for allegedly making electric sales to unauthorized third parties for resale outside its service territory have agreed to a joint settlement.
The settlement calls for TVA only to sell or deliver power to authorized exchange power companies. TVA agreed not to knowingly enter any exchange power transactions if the purchaser buys that power intending to resell it at wholesale to an unauthorized entity. TVA will reiterate its contract requirements with its exchange power companies.
The chief executive officers of Baltimore Gas and Electric Co. and Potomac Electric Power Co. have expressed disappointment over a July 28 decision by a Baltimore County judge denying a motion to return their proposed merger case to the Maryland Public Service Commission.
The judge's decision will keep the merger proceeding before the Baltimore County Circuit Court.
"As we previously stated and made very clear to the court, we cannot merge in accordance with the terms of the current PSC order," said BGE Chair Christian Poindexter and PEPCO Chair Edward F. Mitchell.