Evidence suggests a decision point at 6 cents per kWh, indicating that self-generation becomes a highly viable option at that price

WHAT ROLE SHOULD REAL-TIME PRICING play in a deregulated electricity market? Can it serve as an incentive to induce customers to remain loyal to their power supplier? How do customers respond to price changes carried out under RTP tariffs?

Real-time pricing programs are now being used as a proxy for market-based pricing.

CUSTOMER SERVICE LINKED THE FIVE FINALISTS OF THE 1998 ULTRA competition, with all addressing, and improving, some aspect of serving end users.

The contest winner, Florida Power & Light Co., combined old hardware with new software and other innovations - such as using the Internet - to address a problem that plagues many utilities: how to cut the number of just-paid delinquent customers who call for power reconnects.

ELECTRIC POWER SYSTEMS ARE HEAVILY DEPENDENT ON computers and communications. The electric power industry is reputed to be the third largest user of computers and communications, behind government and the banking industry. When regulators and legislators make decisions regarding the electric power industry, their decisions often carry implications for the industry's computer systems. However, it is rare for these implications to attract significant consideration or influence in the deliberative process.

According to a telephone survey commissioned by the National Council on Competition and the Electric Industry, consumers are happy with their electric suppliers, but want the companies to improve their environmental records.

Many of the 1,307 adults surveyed also would like to see electricity prices improved. Two-thirds, in fact, think prices are too high.

Nearly all consumers (96 percent) feel it's important that electric companies be environmentally responsible. Some 92 percent say that preserving the environment is important, even if it costs more.

IN ACCORDANCE WITH OUR PREVIOUS DISCUSSIONS. we understand that the City of Alameda, Calif. and our municipal utility, the Bureau of Electricity are to be featured in an article to be published in your September edition. The article is being prepared by Mr. Len Grzanka, a local freelance writer, and is to discuss municipal telecommunications ventures. Based on recent staff discussions with Mr. Grzanka, we have some concern that Alameda's situation be represented accurately.

ONE OF THE thorniest issues that the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission has had to deal with in recent years is defining the scope of its jurisdiction over pipelines on the Outer Continental Shelf. Yet the solution is relatively simple and straightforward.

Fueled by the volatile combination of perceived statutory ambiguity and significant financial gains to pipeline owners, who can convince the Commission that their currently regulated facilities are in fact beyond its jurisdiction, the OCS controversy has raged for years.

State PUCs

ISO GUIDELINES. Marking a contrast with California, but lining up with states in the Northeast, the Iowa Utilities Board has urged that independent system operators should have authority to order redispatch to help fulfill service requirements for electric transmission. That rule came as part of a set of principles issued by the board to guide the formation of ISOs in managing electric transmission systems and preventing the exercise of market power.

MARKING THE FIRST CASE of a voluntary agreement in a region not previously organized as a tight power pool, or compelled to act by state legislation, a group of 10 operating electric utilities won approval from the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission on September 16 to form the Midwest Independent Transmission System Operator, Inc., which will take over operational control of certain defined jurisdictional transmission facilities, provided that it complies with conditions imposed by the FERC.

The board of Ameren Corp. elected Charles D. Naslund assistant vice president, power operations. Naslund will help manage operation of the power plants of Union Electric, now known as AmerenUE.

The Texas Public Utility Commission named Saralee Tiede the new director of the Office of Customer Protection. Tiede will replace Bill Magness, who was chosen a year ago to direct the PUC's customer education and response program.

Chairman James J. Hoecker named David P. Boergers to the post of secretary of the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission.

"THESE ARE THE DOG DAYS OF DEREGULATION." That's how Federal Energy Regulatory Commission chairman James Hoecker put it last month in Houston at his luncheon talk at the Sixth DOE/NARUC National Electricity Forum. He bemoaned the "evidence of delay" in restructuring that now "clearly exists."

Don't be fooled. What Hoecker has up his sleeve is nothing less than a full-scale overhaul of FERC Orders 888 and 889.