A decade of restructuring has not affected the financial integrity of the average regulated utility.
Leonard S. Hyman
Perspective
A decade of restructuring has not affected the financial integrity of the average regulated utility.
Ideological bias, economic principles, success of previous deregulation, inordinate greed, and political expediency fueled the movement for electricity deregulation. The authorities, however, never deregulated. They chose to restructure.
The crisis of confidence in today's power industry is, at its heart, a crisis of ideas.
John B. Howe
Perspective
The crisis of confidence in today's power industry is, at its heart, a crisis of ideas.
It's a law that only a mother could love.
Richard Stavros
It's a law that only a mother could love.
It's tough to write another word about repealing the Public Utility Holding Company Act (PUHCA), or the "35 Act," as it is also known, referring to its Depression-era origins. But like the Energizer bunny, this debate keeps on going and going.
It's almost 70 years later, and the issue has outlived several generations of utility executives, regulators, lawyers, bankers, academics, and a few magazine editors. Heck, it may outlive us all.
FERC looks ahead to the new year as it wraps up loose ends from 2002.
Lori Burkhart
FERC: SMD/Grid Issues Lead 2003 Agenda
Dynegy's David Francis, vice president for western power trading, testified on Dec. 21 on why he thought the ISO was bending the rules:
Citizens' Utility Ratepayer Bd. v. Kansas Corp. Comm'n, Nos. 85,750 et al., Dec. 15, 2000 (Kan.App.)
Recent advances in materials science promise a new, truly competitive paradigm for grid investment without land-use headaches or "big-iron" solutions.
John B. Howe
Small Towns Carry Clout
Kevin O'Donnell
News Digest was compiled by Carl J. Levesque, editorial assistant, Lori A. Burkhart, contributing legal editor, and Bruce W. Radford, editor. For continual news updates, see www.pur.com.Nuclear Power
Transmission & ISOs
Transco Independence. Granting Entergy's request for a declaratory order, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission ruled in a case of first impression that a stand-alone transmission company ("transco") would meet the test in Order 888 for independent system operators despite passive ownership by a power producer or other market participant.
Branko Terzic
Deregulation, you say? We still haven't seen any.
Let's begin with a quiz. We'll use the multiple-choice format, developed at the University of Wisconsin during the 1960s to address overcrowding caused by the World War II "baby boom." Choose only one of the following 10 possible answers. Be careful. It's tougher than it looks.
Question: What is meant by the term electric restructuring?
A. To provide all consumers with retail access to multiple "energy" providers.
B. To separate the ownership of power generation from other functions.
C.
Jessie J. Knight Jr.
With few regrets, a regulator steps down from the PUC, still touting his brand of electric competition.
I'm proud to have been an author of the first chapter of a book still being written.
Today's electric industry is more competitive, more reliable, more efficient, and more dynamic than it was six years ago when I joined the California Public Utilities Commission. However, the future of the industry has not been set. The steps taken over the next several years will determine the outcome of electric competition.
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