IT

TransCanada PipeLines Ltd. has adopted a plan to encourage fair treatment of shareholders in event of a takeover offer. The plan addresses concerns that existing Canadian law does not allow enough time for the board or shareholders to properly consider a takeover bid. Under the plan, shareholder rights can only be exercised when a person announces the intention to acquire 20 percent or more of TransCanada's common shares without complying with the "permitted bid" provisions of the rights plan.

By the end of 1996, the 400,000 urban customers of Kansas City Power & Light Co. (KCPL) will enter a new age of technology.

A real-time wireless network will bounce readings from small transmitters installed in the existing meters of every home and business in the greater Kansas City metropolitan area back to computers at the utility's customer services office.

We begin the new year with a recap of the major rulings issued last year by state public utility commissions (PUCs).

Electricity took center stage as state commissioners began in earnest to examine rising competition in the power generation market. The seemingly endless number of privately sponsored seminars, conferences, and reports on the issue might suggest that regulators are following rather than leading on policy.

Retail wheeling has been repeatedly condemned by opponents who claim that it would cause rate discrimination between customer classes. They allege that it would unfairly reduce rates for large customers, while raising them for small ones. But discriminatory rate structures already result from the selective discounts that utilities grant their large customers.

2 percent of California's gross state product. Competitively priced electricity is vital to California's $800-billion-a-year economy, one would think.