Imagine you're the principal energy buyer for a national chain of managed health care centers, with a $200-million annual energy tab. Top management asks you to assess how the chain can cut its energy bills.
You turn to your local electric and gas utility, which talks a lot about customer service, but doesn't have much to show for it yet.
Forty percent of 42 state public utility commissions (PUCs) expect electric utilities to unbundle generation from transmission and distribution within the next one to five years, according to a survey conducted for the Electric Generation Association (EGA) by Boston Pacific Co.
Northern States Power Co. (NSP) and Wisconsin Energy Corp. (parent company of Wisconsin Electric Power Co., WEPCO, and Wisconsin Natural Gas Co.), have announced plans to merge, a move NSP says will create the tenth-largest investor-owned utility in the United States, based on market capitalization. The new company (em Primergy Corp. (em would operate as a registered public utility holding company and parent company of NSP and WEPCO, with the gas subsidiary perhaps spun off to comply with the Holding Company Act.
Richard J. Grossi, chairman and CEO of United Illuminating Co., has been elected chairman of the North American Reliability Council. Grossi will serve a two-year term.
Thomas L. Fisher, president and CEO of Northern Illinois Gas Co. has been elected chairman of the Gas Research Institute's board of directors. Fisher will serve a one-year term, along with newly elected vice chairman, John F. Riordan, president and CEO of MidCon Corp.
Chairman Thomas G.
It was after seven o'clock in the evening (em nearly 12 hours since the DOE-NARUC Second National Electricity Forum had gotten underway up in Providence, RI (em when it all finally hit home. This time the regulators were serious. People were paying attention.
The structure of the utility and telecommunications industries has changed significantly since I began my role as a regulator 15 years ago. Technological developments and a competitive environment, as opposed to regulation, have provided the major catalyst for change. As a result, utility companies, which have historically enjoyed the favor of Wall Street investors, will soon face unprecedented revenue growth problems.
The Maine Public Utilities Commission (PUC) has decided to investigate the need for changes in existing regulations for water rates as a result of "drastically increased" water treatment, filtration, and supply costs. While rejecting calls for immediate changes in rate design, a shift to volumetric interclass cost allocation, and special low-income rate schedules, the PUC decided to open two separate inquiries to determine whether formal rulemakings were required.
The West Virginia Public Service Commission (PSC), on rehearing of an earlier rate order, has reduced the level of emissions control investment in rates for two electric operating subsidiaries of Allegheny Power System, Inc., Potomac Edison Co. and Monongahela Power Co. The PSC excluded one-half of the difference between amounts actually spent and those budgeted for emissions plant needed to comply with the Clean Air Act Amendments (CAAA), finding that the budget was nearly a year old and did not qualify as a "known and measurable" change in rate base.
The Louisiana Public Service Commission (PSC) has turned down a request from South Central Bell, a telephone local exchange carrier (LEC), to switch its form of regulation from the existing incentive-based rate plan to a pure price-cap plan. Under its proposed plan, the LEC would freeze rates for basic residential services for a three-year period, and then cap rate changes based on the rate of inflation. Rates for interconnection and nonbasic services would be market-based.