News Digest

 

On Thursday, Dec. 8, as natural gas hit $40 at the citygate for Southern California (prices hit $60 that Friday), I found myself in Colonial Williamsburg, a guest of Michigan State University's Institute of Public Utilities, at the group's annual conference, watching a panel of industry experts try in vain to explain what was happening.

News Digest

 

News Digest

 

State PUCs

Restructuring Plans. The Ohio PUC denied rehearing of its restructuring order for FirstEnergy issued two months earlier, rejecting arguments by all petitioners-utility, marketers, and consumer watchdog groups.

Frontlines

Engineers Have Their Day

 

 

San Diego Gas & Electric turns vendor heads with its plan to install real-time meters, but the company could face heat from regulators.

This is a landmark event," says Bill Rush, a physicist at the Gas Technology Institute, and a gas industry expert on electric utility metering systems.

News Digest

 

 

A look at the various approaches regulators have taken to pricing energy in competitive markets, and how some are rethinking those plans.

 

For deregulation to work, consumers must see the real price-- including all utility costs.

 

The technology is here. What's missing is the will to use it.