Are consumer broadband over powerline (BPL) services enough to make the business case for utilities?
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New Positions:
William O. Ball moved to the role of senior vice president of transmission planning and operations for Southern Co. He had been Southern's vice president of transmission planning, policy, and support services since March of 2002.
The Southwest Power Pool (SPP) board of directors chose Nicholas A. Brown as the organization's president and CEO. Brown has been with SPP for 18 years, most recently as senior vice president and corporate secretary.
State PUCs Show Split Personality
While electric restructuring pauses, telecom pushes forward.
No matter which way they turn, state public utility commissions (PUCs) have their work cut out for them.
While federal policy-makers push ahead with wholesale market reforms in the electricity sector, many at the state level now call for a cautious approach to protect consumers.
e-Commerce is consolidating, but there's room for the little guys too.
Thomas Edison built the electric utility industry virtually from scratch out of his workshop, so can Internet mavericks do the same for e-commerce? Or has the moment passed for the garage startups, leaving it to the big utilitiesor better yet, the large conglomerates and multi-company joint venturesto attract capital and introduce the new ideas?