CPUC

An insider recounts the twists and turns that led to a new state law and new rights for the state's electric consumers. On Dec. 3, 1996, Gov. Tom Ridge signed into law Pennsylvania's Electricity Generation Customer Choice and Competition Act (em a historic statute that will introduce competition in the retail market among suppliers of electric generation. The act passed primarily because of strong leadership from the governor and others.

A control area is like an airport (em too many planes, not enough runways.

SAN FRANCISCO, CALIFORNIA, AUGUST 21, 1996 - 8:35 A.M.

On Saturday, Aug. 10, 1996, a power outage left more than 4 million Californians without electricity, prompting the California Public Utilities Commission to conduct emergency hearings. Witnesses appeared from electric utilities and a host of federal and state agencies, including the Bonneville Power Administration, the U.S. Department of Energy, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission and the Western Systems Coordinating Council.

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit has ruled that natural gas local distribution companies (LDCs) in California are no longer immune from antitrust actions caused by their activities in the natural gas vehicle (NGV) industry. The decision clears the way for a federal district court to hear a complaint lodged against Southern California Gas, a local distribution company (LDC), by two California corporations engaged in the NGV refueling business.

The California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) has denied a request by a large noncore gas user for a waiver from eligibility limits imposed under a real-time pricing (RTP) experiment for gas transportation service approved by the CPUC in 1994 for San Diego Gas and Electric Co. (SDG&E).

In an earlier ruling, the CPUC had restricted eligibility for the RTP experiment to a maximum of 10 customers per year, and had excluded electric generation and cogeneration customers from eligibility.

The U.S.

The California legislature had taken an interest in electric restructuring from early on in the debate. Through policy committees of the Assembly and Senate, it had signaled that the CPUC would need the blessing of the lawmakers before it would be allowed to pursue the ideas spelled out in the commission's Final Policy Decision. Moreover, the December 1995 decision had drawn a divided reaction. Some parties had sought relief from the outcome of the December 1995 order.

Early on in the debate, the legislature had signaled the commission that it would need the blessing of lawmakers to pursue its agenda.This past August, during the waning days of a two-year session, the California Legislature unanimously passed a landmark bill to deregulate the state's $23-billion electric utility industry.

The new law, known as "Assembly Bill (AB) 1890, largely reaffirms the broad outlines of the December 1995 Final Policy Decision issued b

a fortunate few, opening up competitive options even

in advance

of 1998.With a fountain pen and a flourish of promises, California Gov.

Public Utilities Fortnightly asked eight commissioners about the demands of restructuring and about an issue particular to their state.

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Comments by P.

The California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) has approved a Total Service Long Run Incremental Cost (TSLRIC) study submitted by Pacific Bell, a local-exchange carrier (LEC), for use in pricing bundled and unbundled basic-service network offerings. The CPUC rejected similar studies submitted by GTE California, Inc., finding that the LEC had employed flawed methodologies and that the studies lacked adequate supporting data.