Duke Energy

The Natural Gas Supply Association promoted John H. Sharp and Philip M. Budzik. Sharp, the association's chief lobbyist and counsel since 1988, became vice president, federal and state government affairs, and counsel. Budzik, previously director of research and analysis, was named vice president, federal regulatory affairs and technical analysis.

Bob Wentland joined Coherence Technology Company Inc. as research geophysicist. Wentland also is the manager of product development for CoherentVision(. Wentland's career includes 16 years with Shell Oil Co.

DTE Energy Technologies named G. Paul Horst company president. Horst was founder and first chief executive officer of Nematron Corp. He pioneered the use of industrial computers to provide operator-to-machine interfaces similar to ATM machines. Since 1995, Horst has served as a director of Interface Systems and a consultant to DTE Energy.

Randy Hardy, former CEO and administrator of Bonneville Power Administration, has formed the Hardy Energy Consulting firm. Hardy will work with the Washington, D.C.

These executives are energizing the power business with their persistence, ideas and pure gut instincts.

What is an innovator? Must he, or she, be an inventor? Or merely an idea-prone CEO with a knack for building a string of successful companies? Or could an innovator be both a scientist and CEO?

In this first-ever feature, Fortnightly has chosen innovators from all segments of the energy business.

ENERGY SERVICE PROVIDERS ARE LISTED BY THE DOZENS on public utility commission Web sites, often with direct links to the companies themselves. Even so, picking out 10 to watch for their commercial and industrial activity isn't an easy task.

There's no reliable volume data. There's no organization rating the services each of these vendors offers. The ESPs themselves are either reticent about disclosing data or overly boastful. There's no ready apples-to-apples comparison of ESPs available for prospective C&I customers. Still, who is who among ESPs is a legitimate question.

Efforts to make generation competitive have induced several electric utilities to sell their power plants. Some sales are voluntary. Some are forced by rules mandating functional segregation from transmission and distribution. Of those sales announced or completed, most have involved high-cost utilities, and all have garnered at least book value, suggesting an attempt by sellers to deal with stranded costs.

Why then, are buyers willing to pay more than book value? They must believe they can improve on cash flows - either by raising revenues, trimming costs, or both.

Business Wire

William Catacosinos has resigned as chairman of MarketSpan Corp., the utility formed to replace the troubled Long Island Lighting Co. Catacosinos is under investigation by the New York attorney general due to a $42-million severance payment as part of the buyout of LILCO by the New York government-run Long Island Power Authority (see Public Utilities Fortnightly, August 1998, p.28).

SCT Utility Systems Inc., signed a software and services agreement worth about $13 million with the city of Seattle for the BANNER Customer Management System.

PUBLIC UTILITIES FORTNIGHTLY SPOKE WITH FEDERAL Energy Regulatory Commission Chairman James Hoecker shortly after the Clinton Administration released its long-awaited Comprehensive Electricity Competition Plan.

Although Hoecker sees new legislation as only "the remotest of possibilities" for this session of Congress, he expects that the "real debate" will begin next year, with environmental issues perhaps proving to be the most difficult to solve.

Are mergers bad for competition? "Not necessarily," he says.

EL PASO Energy Corp. named C. Dana Rice vice president and treasurer. Previously, Rice served as vice president of finance for Tennessee Gas Pipeline Co.

Duke Energy Power Services LLC named William F. Hall vice president and general manager of California operations. Previously, Hall was the regional manager for Duke Power's 2,700-megawatt Allen, Riverbend and Lincoln power plants in North Carolina.

Linda S. Lennox, who joined NUI Corp. in February 1997 as director of corporate communications and investor relations, was promoted to assistant vice president of the department.

Federal Agencies

ELECTRIC RETAIL PRICES. The Energy Information Administration has released a new report finding that the average retail price of electricity has declined for the third year in a row and remained stable for the first nine months of 1997. According to Electric Sales and Revenue 1996, average residential electric prices declined slightly in 1996, the first drop for that consumer class since the EIA began collecting data in 1984.

TWO RECENT shocks could turn up the pressure on Canada's two state electricity giants to deregulate.

After January's ice storm, about half Quebec's population went without heat or light for up to a month (em at the coldest time of the year. Almost one-quarter of the provincial economy was shut down. It was the continent's worst-ever blackout and Canada's worst natural disaster. It cost Quebec 1 percent of its flagging gross domestic product.

The ice storm affected Ontario Hydro much less.