One of these days you may see a former chairman of the American Gas Association become the new chair of the Edison Electric Institute. Or maybe the other way around.
I broached this subject the other day when I found myself downtown at EEI headquarters on Pennsylvania Avenue, talking with some association reps.
Myth 1. RTP increases the utility's costs and revenue requirements. %n1%n
Reality 1. A well-conceived RTP program reduces the utility's costs and revenue requirements.
RTP programs can reduce peak demands for power, increase off-peak demands, and reduce the need for additional peak-load capacity. This increase in efficiency can lead both to higher company profits and greater customer savings. As the electric industry becomes more competitive, these savings will flow to those customers most responsible for lowering the utility's costs.
Richard Y. Roberts, commissioner of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission for five years through July 1995, joined Reid & Priest. He'll work in the business, finance, infrastructure, government, utility and energy segment of the firm.
El Paso Energy International Co., a unit of El Paso Energy Corp., named a six-man management team, pulled from international operations and the recently acquired Tenneco Energy. Byron Kelley will be executive v.p.; John R. Cunningham will be v.p.-administration, engineering and asset management; William S.
Each assumes a vertical breakup, but watch out for securitization.
It can prove difficult to detect any overt difference of opinion among financial credit rating agencies. That appears to be the case in today's electric utility industry, where Moody's, Duff & Phelps, and Standard & Poor's each predicts that a breakup of the vertically integrated utility is now virtually inevitable. The result, they say, will leave us with an industry made up of disaggregated high-risk power generators, and lower-risk companies engaged in transmission, distribution, and other related services.
The Texas PV Coalition has been formed to speed commercial availability of photovoltaic systems as a service alternative to extending utility lines. The coalition, which will be managed by Planergy, Inc., an independent energy service company, includes Rio Grande Electric Cooperative, Inc.; Wise Electric Cooperative, Inc.; Tri-County Electric Cooperative, Inc.; and Lubbock Power & Light. Funding to the tune
of $250,000 was provided by the Utility Photovoltaic Group (backed by the U.S. Department of Energy) and the Texas State Energy Conservation Office.
Stranded-cost recovery plus incentives for renewable energy.A New England utility executive told a U.S.
A new law could help New York utilities reduce electric rates
and improve their balance sheets.
Legislation recommended by Gov. Pataki on June 1, 1996, seeks to provide the New York Public Service Commission (PSC) with a new financial tool to address possible stranded costs as the state moves toward a competitive retail electric market.
in energy service companies to boost earnings beyond the normal growth rate?Going on the "defensive-offensive."
In the early 1990s, flush with utility money from its corporate parent, Entergy Systems and Service, Inc. began expanding to provide competitive energy services.
With competition looming, electric utilities increasingly resort to price discounts, both to retain customers and to alleviate some of the pressure to introduce retail competition. Performance-based ratemaking (PBR), which allows utilities greater flexibility in offering price discounts, is emerging as an integral component of many restructuring proposals.
However, flexible pricing can create inequity among ratepayers.
Since the federal Court of Appeals decision in the Calvert Cliffs case over 25 years ago, no power plant may be built without a thorough socioeconomic impact statement. Yet, schemes to alter the entire supply system of a state - or even the nation - are currently proposed with only cursory attention to socioeconomic consequences.