Fortnightly Magazine - September 15 1997

Wisconsin Combo Called a "Natural Outcome"

WPS Resources Corp. and Upper Peninsula Energy Corp., which have a history of working together on power sales and emergency dispatch, are merging.

WPS Resources Corp.'s main subsidiary, Wisconsin Public Service Corp., is an electric and gas utility serving 400,000 customers. Upper Peninsula Energy Corp.'s main subsidiary, Upper Peninsula Power Co., has 48,000 electric customers.

The acquisition is structured as a stock swap valued at $71.4 million. Holders of Upper Peninsula common stock will receive 0.90 shares of WPS stock for each share held.

Duff & Phelps Credit Rating Co.

Byline: 
Lori A. Burkhart
Read Entire Article

Idaho Supports DSM: Florida Retreats

The Idaho Public Utilities Commission has rejected a request by Intermountain Gas Co. to cut demand-side management and conservation requirements from its integrated resource planning guidelines, despite company claims that reforms were needed to align the planning process with current business practices.

Meanwhile, the Florida Public Service Commission has authorized Florida Power and Light Co. to terminate an existing research and development program for a new gas-driven technology.

Idaho.

Byline: 
Phillip S. Cross
Read Entire Article

SoCalGas Gets Performance Order

Having approved a performance-based ratemaking mechanism for Southern California Gas Co., the California Public Utilities Commission is free to rule on the merger of Pacific Enterprises (parent company of SoCal Gas) and Enova Corp., which owns San Diego Gas and Electric Co.

The PBR should reduce annual revenues by $160 million. If earnings exceed the authorized 9.49-percent rate of return, then a portion will be returned to customers.

The PBR is effective for five years.

Byline: 
Lori A. Burkhart
Read Entire Article

Off Peak

Follow the arrows as California's direct access workshops map out who will have access to electric customer data.

In its latest order implementing direct access for electric customers, the California Public Utilities Commission told Pacific Gas & Electric, Southern California Edison, and San Diego Gas & Electric to conduct workshops to recommend rules on the release of customer information in a deregulated electric industry.

The PUC offered guidelines.

Read Entire Article

S&P Revamps Public Power Rating Scale

Standard & Poor's has revised its business profile scale for public power agencies to give investors more details to figure out each rated utility's ability to compete in a deregulated market.

It expanded its five-point scale to a 10-point scale, similar to the rating system used for investor-owned utilities. A "1" rating is the "most capable of competing," so that investors can better gauge a public power's ability to meet competitive challenges and market developments, such as separation of generation and transmission facilities.

Byline: 
Lori A. Burkhart
Read Entire Article

The Union Label: Electric Restructuring's Hidden Side

In union circles, they call it "burial insurance." That apt phrase denotes the severance, early retirement and re-training packages negotiated for veteran utility workers sideswiped by a changing market.

So far, labor has won some insurance: through legislation in California and in Maine; through a commission order in Massachusetts; and a pending settlement agreement in New York City, prompted by a commission order.

Labor lost hard in Pennsylvania and in Rhode Island, however. Worker protections weren't built into restructuring decisions in those states.

Byline: 
Joseph F. Schuler, Jr.
Read Entire Article

PUC Chair Quain Eyes Gas Competition

John Quain, chair of the Pennsylvania Public Utility Commission, who helped draft legislation to introduce electric competition in his state, predicts that natural gas deregulation is next on the agenda.

In fact, the Gas Customer Choice Act was pending in the House and Senate in the Pennsylvania Legislature.

Speaking at the American Gas Association's Natural Gas Roundtable on July 16 in Washington, D.C., Quain predicted a customer choice bill would be signed either this calendar year or early in 1998.

Byline: 
Lori A. Burkhart
Read Entire Article

Energy Marketing: Is There Added Value in Value Added?

In Norway and in England and Wales, power retailers are learning hard lessons.

The U.S. electric industry has long tried to follow Thomas Edison's dictum "to sell light instead of current" (em to get beyond the meter. But what is beyond the meter at industrial and commercial sites?

In energy-intensive industries one sees processes such as smelters, pulp mills, rolling mills, refineries and chemical plants. In general manufacturing, although some electricity is used for specialized electrotechnologies, most is used for lighting, motive power, computing and robotics.

Byline: 
Alex Henney, Jeff Percival, and Ken Simmonds
Read Entire Article

FERC's Massey Previews Fall Electric Agenda

Commissioner William L. Massey said four issues would dominate the fall electric agenda of the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission: Orders 888 and 889 implementation, mergers, independent system operators and reliability.

Speaking on Sept. 11 at the PowerMart Power '97 conference and expo in Houston, Massey said the FERC hoped to issue a major order this fall on elements of California restructuring to ease implementation of the ISO and power exchange by Jan. 1, 1998.

Byline: 
Lori A. Burkhart
Read Entire Article

What's a Power Plant Worth

"Spark spread" sets value, but as prices diverge from system

lambda, merchant plant buyers will be flying blind.

Many power plants will be bought and sold in the next decade. Some utilities will divest power plants as required by regulators; others will sell for strategic reasons. Most of the plants sold likely will become merchant plants, with no guaranteed market for their electric output. Merchant plant activity is already significant and growing. The value of these plants will depend on how well they can perform in an uncertain market.

Byline: 
Jeffrey P. Price
Read Entire Article
V