[BETA] Fortnightly

Water rates continue to increase - by more than 10 percent in some cities.

The costs of improving water quality to meet mandates are proving too large to be diluted unnoticed into consumers' bills, many agencies are finding.

While the trend of increased water costs continues with U.S. rates up an average of 2.6 percent from 1997 to 1998, a new study reveals that some cities experienced increases of more than 10 percent.

State PUCs

ISO GUIDELINES. Marking a contrast with California, but lining up with states in the Northeast, the Iowa Utilities Board has urged that independent system operators should have authority to order redispatch to help fulfill service requirements for electric transmission. That rule came as part of a set of principles issued by the board to guide the formation of ISOs in managing electric transmission systems and preventing the exercise of market power.

FERC

MIDWEST POWER PRICES. Federal Energy Regulatory Commission Chairman James Hoecker announced July 15 that as soon as the staff presents its findings, the FERC will deal with the complaints filed by Cinergy, Steel Dynamics Inc., and others asking for regulatory relief from the late June run-up in Midwest bulk power prices (as high as $7,500 per megawatt-hour), and for a price cap set at $100/MWh. Nevertheless, Hoecker advised that the FERC was in "no hurry," and that the remedies available to it were not entirely clear. Docket No. EL98-53 (Cinergy), filed June 29, 1998; Docket No.

PERRY BAKER was appointed public information officer for the Arizona Corporation Commission. Baker is a former public information officer for both the city of Phoenix and Maricopa County.

The American Public Power Association named Walter R. McGrath president at its annual conference. McGrath, general manager of the Baintree Electric Light Department, served as APPA's president-elect during the past year and as vice president from 1996 to 1997.

William Irby was named director of the communications division at the Virginia State Corporation Commission. He succeeds Edward C.

TELEPHONE BILLING PRACTICES. Citing the filed-rate doctrine, which bars deviation from published tariffs, a federal appeals court affirmed the dismissal of two class action suits against AT&T Corp. that sought damages for alleged fraud. The suite arose from AT&T's failure to disclose to its residential long-distance telecommunications customers its practice of rounding charges up to the higher full minute.

UNISOURCE Energy Corp. elected Larry W. Bickle and Harold W. Burlingame to its board of directors. Bickle is the former chairman and CEO of TPC Corp. and cofounder and managing director of Haddington Ventures LLC. Burlingame is executive vice president of human resources at AT&T and a director of the Work in America Institute.

John Devine, vice president of Duke Engineering & Services, was elected president of the National Hydropower Association. Devine has served as a director of the National Hydropower Association since 1993.

James E.

Courts

NITROGEN-OXIDE EMISSION LIMITS. Denying an appeal by electric utilities and industry groups against rules proposed by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency for emission limits for nitrogen oxides at certain electric utility boilers, a federal appeals court has ruled that EPA properly interpreted the Clean Air Act. The act allows EPA to set NOx limits for certain electric utility boilers if it could show that more effective technology for low-NOx burners was available, the court said.

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.

WHETHER YOU CALL IT "DEREGULATION" OR "re-regulation," the promised move to competition does not mean less regulation - at least not any time soon.

WITH DIRECT ACCESS SCHEDULED TO BEGIN ON Jan. 1, 1998, California regulators are moving quickly to set up their long-considered policies on electric restructuring. The restructuring actions touch nearly every aspect of electric regulation in the state from financing decisions and rate design to the sale of generating assets and monitoring new capital additions.

In addition, restructuring has affected ongoing regulatory activities such as the development of performance-based rate making plans and pricing and rate designs for large incumbent utilities.