Restructuring Moves Forward in Massachusetts

Fortnightly Magazine - April 15 1996
This full article is only accessible by current license holders. Please login to view the full content.
Don't have a license yet? Click here to sign up for Public Utilities Fortnightly, and gain access to the entire Fortnightly article database online.

The Massachusetts Division of Energy Resources (DOER) has filed its electric restructuring proposal, "Power Choice," as part of the Massachusetts Department of Public Utilities investigation into competition. The proposal will be considered along with restructuring plans submitted by the state's three largest utilities.

Power Choice calls for electric utilities to voluntarily separate into generation and distribution companies. Customers would continue to receive distribution service through their present providers; generation would become competitive. All customers served by investor-owned utilities would be allowed to choose their electric generator beginning January 1, 1998, but customer-choice pilots would begin in 1997.

To alleviate stranded costs, all generation assets would be sold or spun off to a new company at fair market value. Utilities would then be given a reasonable opportunity to recover any verifiable and unavoidable costs left unrecovered. (Niagara Mohawk unveiled its customer-choice plan, "PowerChoice," last October.)

14

Articles found on this page are available to Internet subscribers only. For more information about obtaining a username and password, please call our Customer Service Department at 1-800-368-5001.

This full article is only accessible by current license holders. Please login to view the full content.
Don't have a license yet? Click here to sign up for Public Utilities Fortnightly, and gain access to the entire Fortnightly article database online.