News Digest

 

News Digest

 

 

The problems stem from a lack of incentives for long-term, fixed-price contracts.

The end of summer found energy regulators working overtime in California to appease an angry public that had seen electric bills double and triple in some parts of the state.

News Digest

 

State PUCs

Restructuring Plans. The Ohio PUC denied rehearing of its restructuring order for FirstEnergy issued two months earlier, rejecting arguments by all petitioners-utility, marketers, and consumer watchdog groups.

1 Some utilities may question this concept. San Diego Gas & Electric argued in California's DG investigation that distributed generation does not always lead to a reduction in distribution plant investment, and that any investment savings is not kilowatt for kilowatt. And the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission has taken a more extreme position, allowing a utility to charge a fee for distributed generators delivering electricity into the distribution grid.

Frontlines

Meter Men?

 

 

Some thoughts on the battle to measure electricity consumption in real time.

How can something so simple as an electric meter bring governments, editors, and the utility industry to their knees?

 

San Diego Gas & Electric turns vendor heads with its plan to install real-time meters, but the company could face heat from regulators.

This is a landmark event," says Bill Rush, a physicist at the Gas Technology Institute, and a gas industry expert on electric utility metering systems.

Off Peak

September 1, 2000

Wakeup Call in San Diego?

By Regina R. Johnson

Frontlines

Prices Hit a Pique

California pays the bill, but who gets the blame- the feds or the fundamentals?

What did they know and when did they know it? That's what California consumers are asking utility regulators and system operators, now that the heat of summer has made a shambles of the state's vision of electricity competition.