In setting utility conservation goals, the Florida Public Service Commission (PSC) has decided to permit the state's electric utilities to eliminate demand-side management (DSM) programs that increase rates for nonparticipating customers.
Gas local distribution companies (LDCs) in Wisconsin must provide unbundled balancing services for transportation customers at cost-based rates under new rules adopted by state regulators. The new rules came out of a Wisconsin Public Service Commission (PSC) investigation of LDC tariff changes required as a result of pipeline restructuring at the federal level.
The PSC ruled that balancing is required where an LDC is served by a pipeline with balancing provisions that contain penalties that default to the LDC, and hence to system sales customers.
The New York Public Service Commission (PSC) has turned down a request to create a special rate for backup service to qualifying facilities (QFs) with dispatchable contracts. The PSC made the ruling while reviewing a request by Niagara Mohawk Power Corp. for permission to increase its rates for backup services provided to customers with onsite generation, primarily QFs. The utility had withdrawn the proposed rates, but only after the parties to the case claimed that the rate proposal was designed to kill competition, especially from smaller QF projects.
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit has upheld a Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) finding that the municipal preference in hydropower project relicensing cases did not apply to "orphaned" facilities. Facilities are considered orphaned if the current license holder files a notice of intent to apply for a relicense, but then fails to file a timely application.
Commercial and industrial customers of Consumers Power Co. paid almost $500 million above their actual cost of service to subsidize residential customers over the past five years, claims John W. Clark, Consumers Power senior vice president. "The current subsidy of residential electric rates by Michigan industry is shortsighted and costs Michigan jobs," he told a business roundtable in Detroit.
No matter how you cut it, the Customer Information System (CIS) represents a utility's largest computer asset. It eats up the most disk space. It contains the most programs and lines of code. It handles the largest volume of business, whether measured in transactions or dollars.
Billing lies at the core of the CIS. It's the most complex area. But once bills go out to customers, the CIS must manage accounts receivable and the collection process, not to mention financial control and reporting.
By the end of 1996, the 400,000 urban customers of Kansas City Power & Light Co. (KCPL) will enter a new age of technology.
A real-time wireless network will bounce readings from small transmitters installed in the existing meters of every home and business in the greater Kansas City metropolitan area back to computers at the utility's customer services office.
H.J. "Jim" Mellen, Jr. was named CEO of MDU Resources Group Inc. He will retain his current position as president. Mellen replaced John A. Schuchart, who will continue as chairman of the board.
Robert Anderson, Montana Public Service Commission member, was elected 104th president of the National Association of Regulatory Utility Commissioners. Edward H. Salmon, member of the New Jersey Board of Public Utilities, was elected first v.p.
Privatization Knocks
The timely article on Central America and the Caribbean by Lee M. Goodwin (Nov. 15, 1994) omitted to mention the privatization potential of the region's utility systems. For example, Grenada recently privatized 50 percent of its utility, GRENLEC, and Trinidad and Tobago has privatized electric generation. These alternatives to "greenfields" project development deserve attention from U.S. developers as well. In any case, based on my experience, I would certainly echo Mr.
Ratings Reveal Risk
In an interesting article (Oct. 15, 1994), Professor Brooks Marshall suggests that bond ratings are a poor predictor of equity risk, based on a regression of utility risk measures on measures of utility bond ratings. For utility variables, he used 1) stock beta and 2) risk premiums based on analysts' expected forecasts. For bond rating measures, he used 1) average yields for various classes of bonds and 2) a numerical ranking.
