When viewed as serving market segments, utilities differ little from manufacturing companies, where most costs are shared among products and processes.

Activity-based cost management has had a tremendous impact on manufacturing enterprises; and its use has spread to some service industries such as banking, insurance and health care. ABCM encompasses two well-known management concepts: activity-based costing and activity-based management. Now that electric utilities are gearing up for competition, it is time to ask if ABCM has any relevance in the public utility industry.

"When they come to town ... we'll ... accompany them to Capitol Hill ... to make their trip to Washington a 'two-fer,' if you will."

Paul Rodgers knocked NARUC on its ear last July when he announced his resignation as executive of that century-old association.

Rodgers, also general counsel, had served the National Association of Regulatory Utility Commissioners for more than 30 years.

His unexpected move came in the midst of strategic planning at NARUC.

Retail wheeling in Kansas: Stranded costs could bewitch customer choice.

With the advent of retail wheeling, some customers will see their electricity prices fall while others will see them rise. And stranded costs may have a lot to do with it (em at least according to a report by the Docking Institute of Public Affairs at Fort Hays State University in Kansas.

The Michigan Public Service Commission has authorized Michigan Gas Utilities to increase rates and has ruled that revenues booked by an affiliate that offers administrative, gas brokering and appliance repair services should be included as part of the utility's net income.

The commission said Michigan Gas can increase rates $1.7 million, including an allowance for return on equity of 10.75 percent.

Michigan Gas had excluded from rate calculations revenues found unrelated to utility operations, such as an unregulated affiliate's propane operations.

Responding to a high level of consumer concern, the Connecticut Department of Public Utility Control has directed a water utility to treat supplies from one of its underground supply sources to reduce radon contamination.

The department said Bridgeport Hydraulic Co. could recover the costs over three years through a surcharge on customers in its Litchfield division who use the contaminated water. The department acknowledged there is no public health standard for radon in drinking water.

The New Jersey Board of Public Utilities has approved a settlement plan authorizing Jersey Central Power and Light Co. to recover up to $149 million in purchased power contract buyout costs.

The Idaho Pubic Utilities Commission has approved two new electric market experiments to test a market-based pricing tariff proposed by one electric utility and a direct-access pilot program proposed by another.

Market-based pricing. It authorized Idaho Power Co. to offer industrial customers, on an experimental basis, the option of purchasing power under a market-based rate schedule. Customers who contract for 5 to 10 megawatts of firm demand at one delivery point qualify for the pilot tariff program.

Signaling victory over one of the more complex issues in the move to competition in the local telephone market, regulators in Connecticut and New York have adopted rate plans for unbundled interconnection services offered by incumbent local exchange carriers.

Both states also recently approved the wholesale discount rate that the LECs must apply to existing services when offering them for resale by competitive companies. See Re AT&T Communications of New York, Inc., 173 PUR4th 274 (N.Y.P.S.C. 1996); Re So. New England Tel. Co., Docket No. 95-06-17, March 25, 1997 (Conn.D.P.U.C.).

Sound bites from state and federal regulators.

Gas Curtailment. New York PSC approves updated curtailment and interruption tariffs for many of the state's natural gas local distribution companies. It had asked the LDCs to develop new rules to reflect growing competition and ensure gas deliveries for core customers during a supply crunch. Case 93-G-0932, March 24, 1997 (N.Y.P.S.C.).

T & D Classification. New York PSC opens proceeding to distinguish between electric transmission and distribution facilities.

The American Legislative Exchange Council has adopted a resolution setting December 2000 as the federal date-certain for expediting the transition to competition in the electric power industry.

The date set in the model resolution, which state legislators can adopt, is the same deadline named in the federal bill drafted by Rep. Dan Schaefer (R-Colo.). ALEC, the largest bipartisan membership association of state legislators with 3,000 members, believes that a common timeline between federal and state governments is necessary for a seamless transition to competition.