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Fortnightly Magazine - December 1996

Marketing & Competing

Virtual DisCos? Utilities might be stepping out,

but outsourcers could be cutting in.Wholesale competition and the prospect of competitive retailing are leading many electric utilities to turn their distribution activities into discrete business units. But the emergence of the "DisCo" as a distinct entity may only mark the first step in a more radical disaggregation.

Why the distribution business may see radical change isn't immediately apparent.

Byline: 
Corey Stone
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Majority Whip Introduces Restructuring Bill

Signaling the direction he believes the 105th Congress should take, Rep. Tom DeLay

(R-TX) on the last day of the 104th Congress introduced legislation, H.R. 4297, "The Consumers Electric Power Act," to bring competition to the nation's electric industry.

Byline: 
Lori A. Burkhart
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IRS Eyes Taxes in Debt - Equity Swaps

According to Chadbourne & Park, LLP, the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) is auditing U.S. companies that bought shares in foreign utilities in recent privatizations to determine whether they should have paid U.S. taxes.

All of the transactions involve debt-equity swaps, which can take many forms. For example, a U.S. company interested in buying shares in a foreign utility first goes into the market to buy bonds of the foreign government.

Byline: 
Lori A. Burkhart
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FERC to Examine Market Dominance for NiMO

The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) has conditionally approved market-based power-sales rates for Plum Street Energy Marketing, Inc., an affiliate of Niagara Mohawk Power Corp. (NMP) (Docket No. ER96-2525-000). It also set for hearing the issue of whether transmission constraints result in market dominance by NMP or its affiliate.

Plum Street's application to market and broker electric power states that it would not market power to NMP unless so authorized by the FERC.

Byline: 
Lori A. Burkhart
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