District of Columbia Public Service Commission

Exelon to Acquire Pepco Holdings

Exelon and Pepco Holdings signed a definitive agreement to combine the two companies in an all-cash transaction. The agreement, which has been unanimously approved by both companies’ boards of directors, brings together Exelon’s three electric and gas utilities – BGE, ComEd and PECO – and Pepco Holdings’ electric and gas utilities – Atlantic City Electric, Delmarva Power and Pepco – to create the leading Mid-Atlantic electric and gas utility.

DC PSC Nixes AMI Opt-Out for Pepco

The District of Columbia Public Service Commission (PSC) has denied a request by the city’s public advocate, the Office of People’s Counsel (OPC), to reconsider an earlier decision in which the commission had rejected calls for it to require Potomac Electric Power Co. (Pepco) to offer its customers a chance to opt out of an ongoing AMI program. For complete regulatory coverage, citations, and analysis, subscribe to Utility Regulatory News http://www.fortnightly.com/urn-subscribe

2008 Regulators Forum: Putting Efficiency First

New rate structures prioritize conservation, but will customers buy it?

As saving energy becomes a policy priority, utility commissioners struggle to reconcile traditional revenue models with smart metering and smart pricing. Unlocking conservation potential will depend on transforming passive ratepayers into smart consumers. Fortnightly hosts a roundtable discussion with commissioners from six states.

Life Along the Potomac

What federal regulators should do to ensure security, reliability, and cleaner air in our nation’s capital.

The District of Columbia Public Service Commission successfully has used two little known provisions in the Federal Power Act (FPA) to prevent an aging generating plant crucial to the national capital region’s reliability from being abruptly shut down by Virginia’s environmental regulators. In the end, the immediate threat to the region’s reliability was obviated while the environmental concerns associated with the plant were not ignored. The action resulted in a model for how federal energy regulators and environmental regulators can address similar problems in the future.

Perspective

FERC's call for regional PUCs will force state regulators to declare their allegiance.


 

FERC's call for regional PUCs will force state regulators to declare their allegiance.

How will regulators re-engineer restructuring? That was the theme of the seventh annual convention of the Mid-Atlantic Conference of Regulatory Commissioners (MARUC). But while the theme may have been the re-engineering of restructuring, other regulators felt more inclined to discuss the "re-regulating of restructuring."

News Analysis

THE RECENT INCREASE IN MERGER ACTIVITY IN THE energy and telecommunications industries has concerned state regulators for some time. Such concern reveals how the practical or "local" aspects of business deals often clash with broader national issues reviewed by federal authorities in merger cases.

In electric utility mergers, for instance, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission will address effects on competition, rates and regulation.

Joules

Mid-American Power, LLC has bought a 53-Mw, coal-fired generating plant, put it on the power grid, and plans to convert the facility into a 300-Mw, gas-fired, combined-cycle plant. Mid-American bought the E.J. Stoneman Station in Cassville, WI, from Dairyland Power Cooperative after almost two years of negotiations. The companies making up Mid-American include Power Systems, Ltd., Burns & McDonnell Engineering, Inc., and WPS-Power Development, Inc. The plant supplies energy to two regional utilities.

PUCs at 2000 - Question OneState Commissioners

Question: Will your commission still be around in the year 2000? If so, what will it look like? Are you restructuring your commission with the same fervor you devote to electricity, gas, and telecommunications?Response by Nancy McCaffree, Chair, Montana Public Service Commission:

As a regulator I have had the opportunity to listen to economists, energy planners, and other professional soothsayers. I have come to the conclusion that the only certainty pertaining to future forecasts is that they will be wrong 100 percent of the time.