Texas Utilities

THE Oregon Public Utility Commission named Bill Warren director of its utility program. Warren will replace Mike Kane, who is retiring. Currently, Warren serves as administrator of the electric and natural gas division of the utility program.

Michael J. Mujadin was named executive vice president of Nitrotec Corp. and president of Nitrotec's wholly owned subsidiary Nitrotec Energy Corp. Previously, Mujadin was executive vice president of Coastal Corp.'s ANR Storage Co.

Consolidated Natural Gas Co. elected Raymond E. Galvin to its board of directors.

ARE NATURAL GAS UTILITIES DIFFERENT FROM THEIR ELECtric counterparts? Now that customer choice has become available in a few spots on the East and West coasts, can we expect some of the same opportunities to open up for gas consumers? Or are the industries incomparable, without lessons to learn from each other?

The American Gas Association elected its board of directors for 1997-98. David W. Biegler, president and COO of Texas Utilities Co., was elected chairman. Richard E. Terry, chairman and CEO of Peoples Energy Corp., was elected first vice chairman and Gary L. Neale, chairman, president and CEO of Northern Indiana Public Service Co., was chosen second vice chairman.

Beth Emery was appointed vice president and general counsel to the California Independent System Operator executive management team. Emery was previously a partner in the law firm of Sutherland, Asbil & Brennan.

The board of the California ISO selected Jeffrey D. Tranen as its first CEO. Tranen is former president of the New England Power Co., senior v.p. of the New England Electric System and chair of NEPOOL. The ISO starts operation Jan. 1, 1998.

Charles F. Gay, Ph.D., former director of the DOE's National Renewable Energy Laboratory, was hired as president and CEO of ASE Americas Inc. Klaus Albrecht, former president and CEO, will serve on ASE's board and as senior v.p.-business development.

In aiming to make financial statements more meaningful, will FASB instead make them indecipherable?

By mid-summer, a total of 123 companies had cranked out some 574 pages of comments, detailing exactly what they thought of the accounting rules proposed by the Financial Accounting Standards Board to cover the closure or removal of certain long-lived assets. %n1%n The FASB's"Exposure Draft," issued early last year, had requested comments on eight issues. The respondents answered as requested, but also raised a host of new questions.

The National Association of Regulatory Utility Commissioners has elected Susan F. Clark, commissioner of the Florida Public Service Commission, as its representative on the North American Electric Reliability Council. Clark has served as Florida's commissioner since 1991. Commissioner of the North Carolina Utilities Commission, Allyson K. Duncan, also was elected to serve as a NARUC representative. Duncan will represent NARUC on the advisory council to the board of directors of EPRI.

Tony A. Prophet, former new business development v.p.

Sound bites from state and federal regulators.

IntraLATA Toll Calling. North Carolina says newly certified competitive local exchange telephone carriers must apply for separate authority to provide intraLATA toll services, even though incumbent local carriers need not do so. Docket No. P-100, SUB 133, March 31, 1997 (N.C.U.C.).

Dialing Parity. Oregon PUC adopts policies on telephone dialing parity to allow all telephone users who choose alternate carriers to make calls without dialing extra numbers. Order No. 97-107, March 18, 1997 (Ore.P.U.C.).

Payphone Subsidies.

Do mergers and "critical mass" really make a difference? The answer, it seems, is yes.

To become more competitive, U.S. electric utilities have embarked on a quest in recent years to improve operational efficiency and factor productivity. The question is: Are utilities making progress? And, which companies have gained a competitive edge? Which have not?

Industry analysts have long argued that given the structure of the markets they serve and their cost-based, rate-setting procedures, electric utilities tend toward monopolistic behavior.

Can NERC Juggle All Three En Route to Open Access?

At the year's start, the North American Electric Reliability Council decided to leave its "peer pressure" policy behind and require mandatory compliance with its reliability standards. As NERC grapples with its new policy, Public Utilities Fortnightly asked eight industry representatives how they might ensure reliability in a restructured electric industry.

It had taken time for NERC to arrive at this point, but itÆs official: Mandatory sanctions and business incentives will soon be used to enforce compliance.

Some in Congress would link customer choice with a portfolio standard. How would that play in a wholesale power market where gas turbines rule the roost?

By Michael C. Brower and Brian Parsons

WHAT KINDS OF POWER PLANTS WILL

get built in a deregulated electric industry? If recent history offers any guide, utilities and independent power companies will succumb to the traditional wisdom and invest in gas-fired combustion turbines and combined-cycle plants. Sound reasons may exist for doing so. The plants are less expensive than conventional steam plants. They put less capital at risk.