CPUC

long-term PBR mechanism for distribution service only.

On January 1, 1998, California will "deregulate" the state's electric utilities. The Western Power Exchange (WEPEX) and the independent system operator (ISO) will start up, creating an open market for wholesale power.

Elizabeth A.

in energy service companies to boost earnings beyond the normal growth rate?Going on the "defensive-offensive."

In the early 1990s, flush with utility money from its corporate parent, Entergy Systems and Service, Inc. began expanding to provide competitive energy services.

When I wrote this column on July 11, Rep. Dan Schaefer (R-CO) had just concluded a news conference to announce his "Electric Consumers' Power to Choose Act of 1996." Reams of testimony were pouring in, demanding to be read. Faxes arrived nonstop all afternoon with offers from experts to provide comments, quotes, or some unique spin on the day's events.

A special report

on transmission,

power pools, ISOs,

and the fallout from FERC Order 888."WHAT IS NEW IN THE INDUSTRY IS

not the conclusion that coordination in operations is needed to avoid chaos.

Thermal Energy Storage: Putting

Green Solutions

on SiteBy John E. Flory, Loren W. McCannon, Stan Tory,

Donald L. Geistert, and James PattersonA recent study coordinated by the California Energy Commission shows how stored-cooling applications provide both environmental and competitive benefits in a summer-peaking market.As California prepares for a more competitive electric future, the California Energy Commission (CEC) is taking another look at some key customer technologies.

The California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) has rejected claims that an experimental performance-based rate plan for San Diego Gas and Electric Co., a combined electric and natural gas utility, was yielding "perverse results" and should be modified in keeping with the PUC's purposes in establishing the experiment. According to the Utility Consumers' Action Network, the utility had earned a profit that exceeded its authorized return by 114 basis points while the plan was in effect.

The California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) has approved a request by Pacific Gas and Electric Co. (PG&E), an electric utility, to extend balancing account treatment to payments it makes for settlements or judgments rendered in litigation of purchased-power contract disputes with qualifying cogeneration facilities (QFs).

[An earlier CPUC order authorized the utility to record payments to QFs to terminate agreements and to settle contract disputes in its adjustment-clause balancing account.

As state public utility commissions (PUCs) undergo restructuring, consumer advocate services also face possible cutbacks.

California PUC:

In California, the CPUC's Vision 2000 plan would affect various independent departments, such as the Division of Ratepayer Advocates (DRA), Office of Administrative Law, and Department of Policy. It would recast those agencies into eight divisions: customer services (consumer complaints), human resources, information services, energy, telecommunications, rail safety, carriers, and water.

Quizzed by lawmakers, and buffeted by political winds, regulators ponder an uncertain future.

Agree or not, utility commissioners are part judge, part regulator, and part politician.