Northeast Utilities

PUC endorses direct access, plant divestiture and limits on recovery of stranded costs. Says order will not interfere with 1990 bankruptcy plan for Northeast Utilities. The New Hampshire Public Utilities Commission has issued its final plan for restructuring the state's electric industry, at the same time announcing what is believed to be the first formal policy decision by a state utility commission that would deny full recovery of costs left "stranded" by the transition to competition.

Released on Feb.

Testifying before the New Hampshire Public

Utilities Commission, the CFO of Northeast Utilities, John H. Forsgren, warned that a proposed electric deregulation plan could push subsidiaries Public Service Co. of New Hampshire, and North Atlantic Energy Corp. into bankruptcy.

Consulting company LaCapra Associates gave its deregulation report and recommendations on Jan. 3 to the PUC. The Jan. 20 hearing was aimed at examining stranded costs, and what portion of its $800 million stranded costs PSNH would be allowed to recover.

With its membership opened, NEPOOL sets a transmission tariff, but still must develop competitive markets. In 1993, after a series of attempts going back as far as 1971, the New England Power Pool failed to reach agreement among its members for a regional transmission arrangement. But destiny then took over (em with help from the newly enacted Energy Policy Act (em to lead pool members back to the bargaining table. Finally, on Sept. 30, 1996, NEPOOL announced that its executive committee had agreed in principle on restructuring the pool.

Perhaps the only political prediction bound to come true this year is that the words ôelectric restructuringö will reverberate in nearly every stateÆs legislative chamber.

So says Matthew Brown, director of the energy project at the National Conference of State Legislatures.

But other factors support BrownÆs prediction. Public Utilities FortnightlyÆs informal survey of most states turned up similar results. Legislators know that the Clinton Administration and the U.S. Congress plan to introduce a federal bill this year.

The eight utility

owners of the 560-megawatt Connecticut Yankee nuclear plant have decided to shut down the facility rather than make expensive repairs estimated at over $100 million, after having estimated plant costs at five cents per kilowatt-hour, or about 20-50 percent above the cost of replacement power.

Northeast Utilities, a 49-percent owner, said it would lay off about two-thirds of the plant's 322 employees. Other plant owners include Boston Edison, New England Electric System, the Cambridge Light Co., and Eastern Utilities Associates. t

Lori A.

Residential Pilot Programs:

Doing,

Dealing?

Customer choice and electric restructuring may appear synonymous to regulators, but for utilities "choice" means "market share."

THERE WERE 19 PILOT PROGRAMS

planned or underway in the United States by the end of November, involving some 500,000 customers in all classes. The goal? To test competition in retail electric markets.

In the residential class, pilots were operating in Illinois, New Hampshire, and New York. Massachusetts expected to roll out its pilot by January 1. Pennsylvania was planning an April startup.

Cleveland Electric Illuminating Co. (CEI) customers will soon be able to earn "frequent flyer" points for using electricity or replacing gas appliances with electric ones. Under the program, planned for Spring 1997, customers receive one point for every kilowatt-hour they use each month. Points can be redeemed for electric appliances, such as night lights, air purifiers, and electric grills.

The Maine Public Utilities Commission (PUC) (em prompted by an 18-month fight between a utility and a customer threatening to generate its own electricity (em decided on June 10 to keep the docket open in an exit-fee case. Ironically, the fight that brought the issue to the fore was resolved 10 days earlier: On May 31, Central Maine Power Co. (CMP) and Hannaford Bros. Co.

Coopers & Lybrand has released its 1996 Electric Municipalization Review, which examines the two municipalizations completed since the Energy Policy Act of 1992: Broken Bow, OK, and Bozrah, CT.

Broken Bow, which began operating in 1995, serves the new six-megawatt (Mw) load of one industrial customer and owns no electric facilities; Public Service Co. of Oklahoma serves town residents. The Town of Bozrah had been served by a privately held corporation, Bozrah Light & Power (BL&P), whose owner was retiring and wanted to sell.

Probably the quickest way to get punched out in Toronto is to call Canada the 51st state. But let's face it,

the border is getting murky, like power markets.

Aren't we supposed to be importing power from Canada? Didn't the NIMBY syndrome kill off baseload generation construction, making our provincial neighbors the source of our power and raw materials? Then why are companies like Northeast Utilities suddenly seeking permission to export power to the provinces?