Deregulate in haste; repent at leisure. That's what they say about love, marriage, and ratemaking. Yet, in the utility business the regrets are pouring in (em sometimes from the same people who sent out the invitations.
For example, at the end of November, a week before I put fingers to keyboard, the FERC was shocked to discover that the proposed Altus merger between The Washington Water Power Co. and Sierra Pacific Power Co.
The United States Enrichment Corp. (USEC), after consulting with the U.S. Treasury Department, has selected investment bankers for its proposed privatization. The Energy Policy Act of 1992 called for USEC to prepare two paths to privatization: an IPO and a negotiated mergers and acquisition transaction with a third party. USEC supplies 86 percent of the domestic uranium enrichment market, and 37 percent of the world market.
Based on competitive bidding, Morgan Stanley & Co., Inc. has been chosen as transaction manager.
Susan F. Tierney, former assistant secretary for policy at the U.S. Department of Energy, has joined The Economics Resource Group, Inc. as a managing consultant.
UGI Corp. has hired William D. Katz as v.p.-corporate development. He succeeds R. Paul Grady, now v.p.-sales/
operations of UGI's AmeriGas Propane subsidiary.
Stephen D. Chesebro', Tenneco Energy's CEO, was promoted to chairman. Edward J. Casey, Jr. joins the company as president and COO.
Merger Menace: Holding Companies and Overcapitalization
States remain as powerless to control holding companies as they were
in 1935, when PUHCA was passed.
During the 1970s and 1980s, diversification swept the gas and electric utility industries. One byproduct of this craze was the formation of a large number of new public utility holding companies, exempt not only from regulation by the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), but from state regulation over security issues.
and Market Power
Coal, railroads, and electric utilities have been closely intertwined for most of the 20th century. Today, coal fuels over 56 percent of the nation's electricity. Coal and rail transportation together cost electric utilities over $23 billion annually.
Over the past 15 years, a combination of events (em including productivity gains, technological innovations, and consolidation (em has resulted in a very competitive fuel and transportation market.
As regulators continue to investigate industrywide restructuring as an answer to regional electric rate disparities and calls from large consumers for price reductions, the trend of dealing with the problem through rate discounting also remains strong. Regulators have taken steps to ensure that shareholders bear at least some of the risk for revenue shortfalls that might result under the new contracts.
jü( )l, n: A unit of energy measurement equal to a watt-second.
San Diego Gas & Electric signed a power-sales contract with Salt River Project (SRP) for 100 Mw of firm capacity and energy for 1996. SRP will gross about $12 million from the sale.
A Siemens Power generation research team claims a new world record in high-temperature, solid-oxide fuel cells for use in power generation plants. The team achieved an output of 10.7 Kw, operating on hydrogen and oxygen at 950°C.
Having committed to employing competition in the telecommunications local exchange carrier (LEC) market to elicit the broadest range of service offerings while ensuring fair rates, state commissions are now establishing regulations to put the new policies into effect. Current investigations focus on the proper costing and rate-setting methods for interconnection and transport services among newly competing carriers.
The Government of Mexico on November 8 revealed its new natural gas regulations at a special conference of industry executives in Mexico City. The new rules promote use of natural gas; create a competitive, market-driven gas industry; encourage private investment; enhance customer choice; and protect the environment. Private-sector transmission, distribution, and storage of gas were all previously controlled by the state.
Conference attendee Thomas A. Page (em chairman of San Diego Gas & Electric Co.
The New York Public Service Commission (PSC) has approved its first market-indexed incentive mechanism to encourage a local distribution company (LDC) to control gas-supply costs. Brooklyn Union Gas Co.'s modified proposal for a one-year pilot incentive mechanism employs an external index as a gas-cost target (the monthly closing natural gas contract price on the New York Mercantile Exchange), rather than a series of internal cost measures based on estimated fixed and variable costs.
