(October 2012) NU names new president and COO at Connecticut Light and Power; Jim Stanley leaves Duke to become NIPSCO CEO; plus executive changes at FirstEnergy, ConEdison, Southwest Power Pool, Duke-Progress Energy, EEI, and others.
What everybody missed in setting up the regional grids.
Bruce W. Radford
Commission Watch
What everybody missed in setting up the regional grids.
While the electric utility industry has largely agreed on what elements to include in a standard market design (SMD) to govern wholesale power trading in a given region, recent experience shows that the regulators from time to time have overlooked a number of things.
Ratemaking Special Report
Phillip S. Cross
Ratemaking Special Report
Return on Equity:
Fixing an appropriate rate of return on equity (ROE) for electric utility investors marks a fundamental component of the typical cost-of-service rate case conducted across the nation by state public utility commissions (PUCs). The following survey demonstrates the results of such cases, as observed over the past year.
Looking for Fuel Cell Technology's Future.
Carl J. Levesque
FERC Docket No. RT01-86-000, filed Jan. 16, 2001
Calif. PUC Application 99-08-022, proposed decisions by Barnett (Aug. 2, 2000), Neeper (Sept. 19, 2000), and Bilas (Nov. 6, 2000)
PUC Oversight: Panacea or New Problem?
Docket No. ER97-2353-000, Opinion No. 447, 92 FERC ¶61,169, Aug. 17, 2000
Docket Nos. EL00-46-000 et al., 91 FERC ¶61,276, June 14, 2000.
Mergers & Acquisitions
NSP + New Century. The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission OK'd the merger of Northern States Power Co. (NSP) and New Century Energies Inc. (NCE), to form Xcel Energy Inc., on condition that the new company would join the Midwest Independent System Operator. FERC Docket No. EC99-101- 000, Jan. 12, 2000, 90 FERC ¶61,020.
* Rate Pancaking. The FERC found no problem with transmission rate pancaking with the MISO condition, even though NCE subsidiary Southwestern Public Service Co. (SPS) belongs to the rival Southwest Power Pool.
State PUCs
T+D Investment Risk. The Maine PUC appeared to take a pro-consumer stance in setting principles it will use to set a revenue requirement for transmission and distribution (T&D) services provided by Bangor Hydro-Electric Co. after the company becomes a wires-only utility on March 1. The PUC downplayed the risk of wires operations, adopting a return on equity of 11 percent and disallowing about $3.5 million of some $71 million in claimed T&D costs.
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