Seeking to wrest control of public relations for electric competition from private "stakeholders," the California Public Utilities Commission has authorized the state's three largest investor-owned electric utilities (em Pacific Gas and Electric Co., San Diego Gas and Electric Co. and Southern California Edison Co. (em to spend $89.3 million for consumer education on electric restructuring, through mass media, mail, local outreach and a toll-free call center.

In a separate order, the PUC authorized PacifiCorp and Sierra Pacific Power Co.

The California Public Utilities Commission, citing restrictions that force electric utilities to buy and sell power through the state's power exchange, has rejected a request by Pacific Gas and Electric Co., to use energy-related financial derivatives (em futures, swaps and options, etc. (em to manage risk associated with volatility in gas and electric commodity markets.

According to the commission, the proposal by PG&E for blanket authority to employ derivatives would violate several aspects of its electric restructuring policy.

GAS COMPETITION PLAN. Colorado releases framework for rate and service unbundling for natural gas LDCs, which includes: treatment of stranded cost, utility affiliate participation in the competitive market and supplier obligations. Docket No. 97I-0336, Aug. 19, 1997 (Colo.P.U.C.).

Local Telco Rates. Idaho directs USWEST Communications Inc. to reduce annual revenues by $327,000 and approves proposal to compensate ratepayers $4.2 million for yellow pages revenues. It also sets the rate of return on equity at 11.2 percent.Case No. USW-S-96-5, Order No.

The House and Senate conference committee working on energy appropriations decided to cut funding for the Tennessee Valley Authority, then end it after 1998.

The Senate had proposed giving TVA $86 billion to fund nonenergy programs such as flood control and environmental programs (em $20 billion less than the amount proposed by the Clinton Administration. The House held out for less, agreeing to fund $70 million in 1998.

TVA Chair Craven Crowell said the $70 million, along with "carryover funds" from 1997, will allow TVA to meet its obligations.

Hydroelectric power generation by U.S. electric utilities increased 12 percent between 1995 and 1996, according to the latest publication by the DOE's Energy Information Administration. Hydro generation contrasted with output at gas-fired units. That dropped 15 percent to 263 billion kilowatt-hours (em the lowest level since 1993 (em partly due to a substantial increase in gas prices.

According to Electric Power Annual 1996 Volume 1, the average cost of gas delivered to electric utilities on a dollars-per-million-Btu basis was $2.64 in 1996, the highest since 1985.

Rep. Dan Schaefer (R-Colo.) insists he intends to help enact federal customer choice legislation with a certain start date. The chair of the Subcommittee on Energy and Power made the pledge Sept. 24 at the panel's 20th hearing on electric restructuring. The hearing's focus was on state and federal roles in enacting competition.

Schaefer pointed out that the Edison Electric Institute seeks to avoid a federal mandate on retail access, yet members are going back to their states to throw a wrench into deliberations on, or implementation of, restructuring.

Commissioner William L. Massey said four issues would dominate the fall electric agenda of the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission: Orders 888 and 889 implementation, mergers, independent system operators and reliability.

Speaking on Sept. 11 at the PowerMart Power '97 conference and expo in Houston, Massey said the FERC hoped to issue a major order this fall on elements of California restructuring to ease implementation of the ISO and power exchange by Jan. 1, 1998.

Connecticut's Department of Public Utility Control and Attorney General Richard Blumenthal alleged gross mismanagement of the 582-megawatt Connecticut Yankee nuclear plant in charges filed at the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission. Northeast Utilities owns 49 percent of the facility.

The plant has been shut since December 1996 and is being dismantled. The filing claimed the utility lost control of contamination and created an undocumented nuclear waste dump.

CINERGY MERGER CONDITIONS. FERC allows two-year deferral of prior requirement (a condition of the 1993 Cinergy merger) for Cincinnati Gas & Electric Co. and PSI Energy Co. to build a 345-kV transmission line by 2000 to link territories to guarantee central dispatch for generation. Cinergy says it can now duplicate the capacity with open access. FERC Chair James Hoecker concurs, citing "further evidence that the bulk power market is working." (Docket No. EC93- 6-004, Sept. 24, 1997)

Hydro Licensing.

HOW DO CUSTOMERS RESPOND TO REAL-TIME PRICING?

Even when the customer is a commercial or industrial organization, the answer can prove illusive.

Real-life responses to RTP depend on the entirety of the incentive and monitoring systems, group dynamics and individual personalities. Managers within an organization respond to RTP signals based on information and incentives that only they can know and comprehend. Only people employed by the organization are privy to these intangibles, which remain highly idiosyncratic within any organization.