NATIONAL ASSOCIATION OF Regulatory Utility Commissioners (NARUC) President Jolynn Barry Butler appointed Maureen O. Helmer, chairman of the New York Public Service Commission, to serve on the NARUC Committee on Electricity. As a member of the committee, Helmer will work with other state commissioners to develop policy positions.

Steven M. Nagy joined Detroit Edison as manager, supply chain and procurement. Nagy comes to Detroit Edison from Huntsville Electronics, the electronics division of Chrysler Corp., where he served as the division's manufacturing operations manager.

Federal Agencies

NOX EMISSIONS. Generating heavy criticism from industry, on September 24 the Environmental Protection Agency released its long-awaited final rules on nitrogen oxide emissions, outlining a plan to reduce NOx by 28 percent by year 2007 in some 22 states and the District of Columbia, with state implementation plans due by September 1999 and controls in place by 2003, to be carried out through a "cap and trade" program to buy and sell NOx emissions credits.

THE SEPT. 1, 1998 ISSUE OF Public Utilities Fortnightly contained an article, "The Fortnightly 100," which promised to reveal America's "most efficient utilities." The authors used data envelopment analysis (DEA) to analyze historical operating and financial data for 140 utility holding companies. While DEA can be a useful tool for data analysis, used indiscriminately it can lead to misleading conclusions.

We are the world's experts on contingencies," boasted Michehl Ghent, president of the North American Electric Reliability Council, appearing in Houston on Sept. 17 at the Sixth Annual DOE/NARUC Electricity Forum. It was the very day day that NERC released its first comprehensive report on readiness in the electric utility industry in correcting computer software problems associated with the dawning the next century, which for the first time will require computers, software programs and embedded chips to the use four digits to identify the year beginning with turnover from 1999 to 2000.

THE AVERAGE UTILITY EXECUTIVE IS A "'NAVEL-gazing'" introvert, according to Frank Ruotolo. But that executive isn't alone.

Ruotolo is president of The Futures Group, a Connecticut company that has examined how much time U.S. executives spend looking at external factors - new markets, competition, regulatory constraints - versus internal factors such as budgets, organization, and human and capital resources.

Instead, let the ISO accept more imaginative bids for redispatch

IN THE TWO YEARS FROM MID-1994 TO MID-1996, CALIFORNIA undertook an intensive and acrimonious debate on how to set up its new competitive electricity market. The main issue was how much to centralize market decisions. Those favoring a relatively large role for an independent system operator emphasized efficiency and safe operation of the power system. Those favoring a relatively small role for the ISO wanted maximum freedom for market participants to strike power deals.

The California Power Exchange doesn't solicit separate bids for plant start-up, spinning reserve or base load operation. That can make spark spreads a bit misleading

IT SHOULD COME AS NO SURPRICE THAT THE PROSPECT OF electric competition has created a huge demand for price forecasting services. To their credit, the forecasters have obliged, supplying an abundance of tools and techniques. Do the forecasts serve the needs of those who would use them?

Some might wish to use a price forecast to assign a value to assets.

Robert W. Shaw JR. IS A BETTING MAN. Shaw's Aretê Corp. venture capital fund has invested $100 million in energy technology. This year the Center Harbor, N.H., fund set aside $30 million to invest in micro-generation technologies. Already the fund has pumped hundreds of thousands of dollars into more than a half-dozen companies trying to develop microturbines, fuel cells and other promising small-scale generation.

"This is a hot corner," Shaw says.

Shaw bucks naysayers like Ralph Selvig of VentureOne Corp., a San Francisco firm that tracks the venture capital industry.

"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.

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.