The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) has approved a series of orders clarifying that it will not deny or revoke market-based, wholesale electric rates for utilities or their marketing affiliates without first allowing them to correct defects in their open-access transmission tariffs (Docket Nos. ER94-1045-000 et al., Feb. 14, 1996).

Utilities with existing market-based rates (or affiliates with such rates) will have 15 days to refine their open-access tariffs after the FERC identifies a problem (em only then will market-based rates be revoked.

Six midwestern utilities have agreed to establish an independent system operator (ISO) to ensure nondiscriminatory open access to their combined bulk-power transmission systems.

Plans for the "Midwest ISO" should be filed at the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) late in 1996. Members include American Electric Power Co. (AEP), Centerior Energy Corp., CINergy Corp., Detroit Edison Co., Northern Indiana Public Service Co., and Wisconsin Electric Power Co.

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State utility commissioners have gone on record asking Congress to "call them first" before it legislatively restructures the electric industry.

That resolution prompted some of the liveliest debate at the National Association of Regulatory Utility Commissioners' (NARUC) Winter Committee meetings. About 1,000 people attended the 10-day event in Washington, DC, February 21 to March 1.

If there is anything more abhorrent than wife-beating and drug abuse, surely it must be monopoly. Monopoly is un-American: To the economist it represents the very state of original sin. To the courts it ranks with conspiracy. Monopoly promises economic waste, throttled production, obscene profits, and naked power (em all rolled into one. Consider what used to be called the "public utilities." In that sphere, regulated monopoly flourished for many years.

Boston Edison has proposed a unique pilot program that would allow 10 large customers to test hour-by-hour pricing. Although the one-year pilot is not a rate discount program, it would offer participants 10 percent off their demand charge (em in effect, a 4-percent discount. The pilot simulates a market price using a computer model that relays an hourly breakdown of costs to the customers. If the customers are able to respond and move their load around, they may save; if not, their electric bill may remain the same, or perhaps rise.

The Massachusetts Department of Public Utilities (DPU) has approved a discount electric rate contract for defense contractor Raytheon Co., a customer of Massachusetts Electric Co. (ME). But the secrecy surrounding the contract has created an uproar.

Although the terms of the contract are confidential, Raytheon said the three-year contract would yield "significant savings" on its $20-million annual electric bill. ME called the discount an "economic development" contract, which would keep Raytheon and its 17,500 employees from leaving the state.

The Illinois Property Tax Appeal Board has decided to cut taxes for Commonwealth Edison Co.'s (ComEd) Byron nuclear power plant. ComEd currently pays about $40 million in real estate taxes on the plant to Ogle County; the decision would lower the payments to $13.3 million. Ogle County will most likely appeal the decision, because certain local tax districts had planned on the revenue, and some have already spent the funds.

Wisconsin Power & Light Co. (WP&L) has announced that it will withdraw from its current regional reliability council, Mid-America Interconnected Network, Inc. (MAIN), effective December 31, 1997. According to president and chief executive officer of WPL Holdings Errol B.

The Massachusetts Division of Energy Resources (DOER) has filed its electric restructuring proposal, "Power Choice," as part of the Massachusetts Department of Public Utilities investigation into competition. The proposal will be considered along with restructuring plans submitted by the state's three largest utilities.

Power Choice calls for electric utilities to voluntarily separate into generation and distribution companies. Customers would continue to receive distribution service through their present providers; generation would become competitive.

Moody's Investors Service has completed its Western Grid Surveillance Review, a study that assessed the potential impact of the California Public Utilities Commission's (CPUC's) electric restructuring proposal on municipal utilities in that region.