Fortnightly Magazine - September 15 1996

ALJ Rejects SCE Request for PBR

A California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) administrative law judge (ALJ) has issued a proposed decision denying interim performance-based rates (PBR) for Southern California Edison's (SCE's) transmission and distribution services. Since SCE plans to transfer to an independent system operator on January 1, 1998, the ALJ found the interim period too short for PBR to significantly benefit shareholders or ratepayers. SCE will, however, have the opportunity to amend its application to propose a

long-term PBR mechanism for distribution service only.

Off Peak

New thinking defines "stranded costs" in terms of

asset value and return on capital, not lost revenues.

On July 3, the Pennsylvania Public Utility Commission (PUC) submitted its report to the Governor and General Assembly on retail electric competition (PUC Docket No.

I-940032).

Texas Merger Nears Settlement

Southwestern Public Service Co. (SPS) and Public Service Co. of Colorado (PSCC) have promised to credit Texas ratepayers a minimum of $3 million in annual bill savings (em one part of the settlement proposed on July 8 in their merger case before the Texas Public Utilities Commission (PUC). According to SPS, the proposed settlement represents an agreement reached between it, the staff of the Texas PUC, and five intervenors in the merger case.

The PUC's administrative law judge has suspended the proceeding so the various parties can finalize details.

Long-Distance Firms May Triumph in Texas

The Texas Public Utilities Commission (PUC) has issued a preliminary order allowing Sprint Communications to enter the local-exchange market without committing to a lengthy plan to build a telecommunications network.

The Search for Consumer Content in Energy Marketing and Retailing

The battle to control profit margin really boils down to a battle for the customer premises, where the serious money resides.The gas and electric industries in the United States control about $900 billion in assets (production, logistical, merchant). They employ these assets to serve about 150 million customers (counted separately for gas and electric), but they manage to offer only two rudimentary products (em molecules and electrons (em and at only two levels of service: firm (supposedly) and interruptible (obviously).

Perspective

"Utility mentality" has become synonymous with a clinging dependence upon regulation to protect an organization from risk and competition. It also denotes momentum planning and management (em that is, using past performance to project future performance. This way of thinking made sense when companies could count on regulators to shield them from market forces and competition.

Generation: Big or Small?

Generation: Big orDistributed power may turn

heads, but economics points

to central plants.

By Joseph F. Schuler, Jr.

By 2010, distributed power technologies will make up as much as 30 percent of new electric generation.

Nuclear Waste Bill Heads to House

With President Clinton and the Department of Energy (DOE) staunchly opposed, the House of Representatives was expected to return September 4 from August recess to take up its version of a nuclear waste disposal bill that passed in the Senate on July 31 by a vote of 63-37.

Senate bill 1936 and its amendments call for a temporary storage facility at the Nevada nuclear test site near Yucca Mountain before the end of 1999.

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