Rep. Dan Schaefer (R-CO), closed his final hearing on electric industry restructuring with what sounded like a promise to push utilities down the bumpy path of retail wheeling.
"My vision for the future is one where all consumers have the ability to pick and choose among numerous competitive suppliers of electricity," Schaefer said. "It is one where all consumers have the benefit of lower rates, better services, and new innovations brought on by competition . . .
The California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) has approved a request by Pacific Gas and Electric Co. (PG&E), an electric utility, to extend balancing account treatment to payments it makes for settlements or judgments rendered in litigation of purchased-power contract disputes with qualifying cogeneration facilities (QFs).
[An earlier CPUC order authorized the utility to record payments to QFs to terminate agreements and to settle contract disputes in its adjustment-clause balancing account.
Clearing a legal challenge blocking initiation of New Hampshire's newly approved retail wheeling experiment, the New Hampshire Supreme Court has ruled that the state Public Utility Commission (PUC) has the authority to grant competing electric utility franchises. Public Service Co.
The South Carolina Public Service Commission (PSC) has adopted an alternative regulation plan for BellSouth Telecommunications, Inc, a local exchange carrier (LEC). The plan replaces an incentive regulation plan adopted by the PSC in 1991, but subsequently reversed by the state supreme court. See, South Carolina Cable Television Association v. South Carolina Pub. Service Commission et al., 437 S.E.2d 38, 150 PUR4th 216 (S.C. 1993).
The Oregon Public Utility Commission (PUC) has terminated an alternative regulation plan adopted for U S WEST Communications, Inc. a telecommunications local exchange carrier (LEC), in 1991.
The California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) has rejected claims that an experimental performance-based rate plan for San Diego Gas and Electric Co., a combined electric and natural gas utility, was yielding "perverse results" and should be modified in keeping with the PUC's purposes in establishing the experiment. According to the Utility Consumers' Action Network, the utility had earned a profit that exceeded its authorized return by 114 basis points while the plan was in effect.
The Pennsylvania Public Utility Commission (PUC) has authorized Duquesne Light Co. to expand its economic development rate initiatives to include small industrial customers. The new rate rider provides a five-year discount on demand charges on a maximum of 100 kilowatts (Kw) for new or existing customers smaller than 100 Kw. If the utility's service territory is to recover from the steel industry's devastating downturn, the PUC argued, Duquesne must be able to offer a competitive rate to keep industrial operations of all sizes.
While the cost of common household goods like bread and milk increased 77 and 50 percent, respectively, from 1985 to 1995, the average residential electricity bill for customers of San Diego Gas & Electric Co. (SDG&E) dropped 13.6 percent over the same period, according to San Diego Chamber of Commerce statistics.
That trend shows no sign of abating. In fact, low rates are fast becoming a staple for the utility's 1.2 million electric customers.
Richard D. Spencer, lately of General Electric Corp., has been hired by Equitable Resources, Inc. as v.p. and chief information officer. He was technology programs manager at GE.
Commonwealth Edison Co. has formed a new nuclear division management team. Thomas J. Maiman, senior v.p., is the top executive. He moves from the company's fossil division. Michael J. Wallace, another senior v.p., will market the utility on strategic nuclear business issues.
