Lawyers for the Massachusetts Institute of Technology on Feb. 4 argued before the Massachusetts Supreme Court that their client should not be made to pay $6 million to Cambridge Electric Light Co. to cover stranded costs for building its own $50 million on-campus generating plant, as directed by the state utility commission. MIT said it would never have built the plant had it known about the fee. A ruling is expected in the spring.
Regulators in Michigan and Florida have taken steps to expand programs for transportation of customer-owned gas.
In Michigan, the state public service commission will test the idea of expanding transportation service to residential and commercial users for two gas distribution utilities, plus allowing some aggregation to meet volume requirements. In Florida, the PSC will explore the idea of aggregating facilities owned by different customers.
Michigan. Tests in Michigan will involve Michigan Consolidated Gas Co. and Consumers Power Co.
Wisconsin Electric Power Co., outbid about 60 companies to supply electricity to Chicago's Public Housing Authority, now served by Commonwealth Edison Co., which says it will refuse wheeling services. The housing authority says the deal with WEP would allow it to shave about $5 million off its $10-million, annual CE electric bill. The authority currently pays CE roughly 7.2 cents per kilowatt-hour, but would pay less than 3 cents per kWh to WEP, excluding wheeling charges. The dispute may well end up before the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission.
The New Jersey Board of Public Utilities has approved a proposal by Jersey Central Power and Light Co., an electric utility, to meet its short-to-medium-term power needs by purchasing power from utility-owned generating facilities located in New York, Ohio and Pennsylvania.
Under the agreement, the utility will purchase a total of 700 megawatts of power over an eight-year period from Pennsylvania Power and Light Co., Cleveland Electric Illuminating Co. and Niagara Mohawk Power Corp.
The Dakota Electric Association, which buys its power from Cooperative Power of Eden Prairie, Minn., has asked the Minnesota Public Utility Commission to allow it to provide its members the option to purchase energy generated from renewable resources. Energy produced by wind generators would be made available to consumers in 100-kilowatt-hour blocks of energy. Customers would be allowed to purchase blocks equal to their normal monthly usage. A 12-month commitment would be required. The cost of each 100-kWh block would be slightly higher to reflect the higher cost of wind energy. Lori A.
While approving a
three-year settlement on electric rates for Niagara Mohawk Power Corp., the New York Public Service Commission has accepted a highly controversial increase in minimum charges for low-use residential customers.
It also approved a plan to establish an
$11-million, ratepayer-supported fund to promote additional sales to large, alternate-fuel customers, but warned the company that the court would closely monitor relations between the utility and its energy marketing affiliate, Plum Street Energy Marketing.
"It's going to take a lost of time to understand all the pies."
It's almost spring. There's a new energy secretary(emisn't there? And at least for new electric restructuring bills in Congress. Sen. Frank H. Murkowski (R-Alaska) is chairing "workshops" on deregulation at the Energy and Natural Resources committee.
Everyone's wondering: Which bill take hold? Where will it be and how will it look by the end of the legislative session: dead, alive, or limp?
Milwaukee County District Attorney E. Michael McCann has been appointed to investigate allegations that Wisconsin PSC member Dan Eastman acted improperly by talking with Wisconsin Energy Chairman Richard Abdoo and others about the proposed "Primergy" merger between WE and Northern States Power Co., prompting sources to speculate that too many delays could kill the merger.
The Minnesota PUC reportedly is also investigating ex parte allegations, but Minnesota DPU Administrative Law Judge Allan Klein has ruled that the merger would not be harmful or anti-competitive.
The California Public Utilities Commission has rejected a request by Pacific Gas and Electric Co., for a waiver from scheduled rate reductions mandated under a three-year base-rate plan approved in December 1995.
The court said the company has shown no "extraordinary circumstances" to support breaking the three-year rate contract.
The utility had claimed it would incur greater-than-expected maintenance and service expenses in areas such as tree trimming, meter reading and meter repair.
s The technology is digital.
s The medium is cyberspace. The product is a strategic system for billing, collection and customer services (BCCS) that integrates knowledge and choice through an automated customer interface.
The impending obliteration of the business boundaries between the gas, electric and other energy industries will launch a series of convergent waves of change. Executives, regulators, legislators, investors and, naturally, consumers must ride this wave over the next 10 to 15 years.
