People

New Positions:

Southern Co. appointed Chris Hobson senior vice president of environmental affairs, reporting to Charles Goodman, the company's newly named senior vice president of environmental policy and research. Hobson currently serves as vice president of environmental affairs for Southern Co. subsidiary Georgia Power.

Three ways to value nuclear power plants for buyers and sellers.

Appraisers don't make the market-they reflect it. But when the market speaks, appraisers listen. The appraiser must use judgment, experience, and common sense to correlate the final conclusion of value for a subject plant, basing the conclusion on market indicators.

BYLINE

As a former independent power producer, George Lagassa is sympathetic to the woes of the merchant power industry. Until just a few years ago, he held the license to a micro-hydro qualifying facility (QF) in New Hampshire, so he understands what it takes to compete in a regulated-franchise industry. Yet, as the principal of Mainstream Appraisals in North Hampton, N.H., Lagassa is also a dedicated pragmatist. He sees the industry's consolidation trend as a sort of correction in the U.S. power market.

As Baby Boomers near retirement age, utilities face the challenge of preparing the next generation of leaders.

Human resources managers at many utilities are sounding alarm bells about an impending shortage of skilled personnel-even amid flat industry growth and high unemployment rates.

Business & Money

The consequences of exuberance are all around us.

Much of the 160 GW of new generation capacity added to the U.S. inventory since 1998 is now under water, economically speaking. At a per-megawatt cost of $300, this represents $50 billion of investment-much of which is concentrated in Texas (23 GW), Illinois (14 GW), and Georgia (11 GW). The key question for both merchant and other plant owners is how long it will take for plant values to recover.

New Positions:

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission established the position of deputy executive director for Homeland Protection and Preparedness, naming William F. Kane to fill the role. Kane previously oversaw the offices of Nuclear Reactor Regulation, Enforcement, Investigations, and the Regions.

PJM would dictate grid expansion, even if not needed for reliability, and then push the cost of the upgrades on those who use them the most.

Chairman Pat Wood and his Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) may well have given up on attempts to impose a standard market design (SMD) on the electric utility industry, but that doesn't mean the nation's grid system operators won't try the same thing.

The collapse of wholesale markets has utilities once again making the purchasing decisions, and taking all the risks.

If a common theme is emerging from the various policy directions across the country, it seems to be that responsibility for supply resources is moving away from open markets and back into the hands of load-serving utilities.

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.

Fighting to Privatize

As Latin America swoons, the electricity sector holds on tight.

The International Monetary Fund's (IMF) World Economic Outlook September 2002 gives a fragile outlook in the short-term for Latin America. In 2002, regional output contracted by 2.5 percent in the first quarter (compared with the final quarter of 2001) and is expected to fall in 2002 as a whole, according to the IMF.