Can NERC Juggle All Three En Route to Open Access?

At the year's start, the North American Electric Reliability Council decided to leave its "peer pressure" policy behind and require mandatory compliance with its reliability standards. As NERC grapples with its new policy, Public Utilities Fortnightly asked eight industry representatives how they might ensure reliability in a restructured electric industry.

It had taken time for NERC to arrive at this point, but itÆs official: Mandatory sanctions and business incentives will soon be used to enforce compliance.

A recent conversation:

"When was the demise of the regulatory bargain? What you say is true, but at some point you had to know the bargain was over."

(em A state utility commissioner

"Beats me, it doesn't seem to be over yet. The electric industry still has a duty to serve all customers, and it must charge below-market rate confiscatory for many of our services because of the regulatory bargain.

Touted as a panacea for stranded costs, securitization would forever shield rates from market scrutiny.

We consumers display an amazing talent to squander the fruits of our labor on the whim of the moment. Examples might include bungee jumping, vanity license plates or pet rocks. Or just about anything you might find in a magazine stuffed in the back of an airline seat.

Now make way for electric utility restructuring, where the latest fashion calls for securitization of uneconomic costs.

Ask this question: Are Investors today earning what they thought they would, back when they last had faith in regulation?

As their customers discover more competitive prices, many utilities remain saddled with the costs of uneconomic plant and power purchase contracts approved under regulation. They seek compensation for these costs, but the amount deserves a close examination.

Some utilities seek remuneration that exceeds the market value of their common stock. Such a settlement seems overly generous for investors, who will continue to own their shares after the payoff.

And why policy on

stranded costs defies

a traditional legal or

economic analysis.

There are sound economic reasons why policymakers should allow electric utilities to recover stranded costs through a competitively neutral network access charge, or some similar fee. First, differences in the quality of utility management appear to have contributed little to differences in electricity rates among states.

Many regulators say that new technology makes it cheaper and easier to build and operate electric generating plants.

A U.S. federal district judge in Pennsylvania will allow a jury to hear antitrust complaints lodged by heating oil dealers challenging certain promotional activities by Pennsylvania Power and Light Co., but it will exclude from jury deliberations any consideration of whether PP&L had established a "monopoly" in the home heating market.

During the period the utility had allegedly engaged in the promotional activities, its share of the entire home heating market had never exceeded 31 percent, the court said.

The Virginia State

Corporation Commission has authorized Delmarva Power and Light Co. to close two experimental load-management tariffs to new customers.

Nevertheless, the utility said it would continue to call upon existing program participants to mitigate system emergencies throughout the year.

One program, established in 1988, offered billing credits to customers who agreed to establish a firm service level and then curtail load to that level at the company's request during peak management billing months of June through October.

While directing PNM Gas Services ( a division of Public Service Company of New Mexico) to reduce rates for gas service, the New Mexico Public Utility Commission has redesigned residential rates to reinstate the once-discredited notion of recovering fixed costs in the commodity charge.

In the same case, the commission also rejected recovery of discount costs and other fees the utility paid and a proposal by the utility to "rebundle" sales and transportation rates by end-use class.

The PUC ordered PNM to reduce gas service rates $6.958 million.

The New York Public Service Commission has authorized Brooklyn Union Gas Co., to amend its existing business-incentive and area-development rate programs.

Brooklyn Union provides rate reductions for new or expanding businesses in 26 specified regions under the area-development program. It also has provided similar benefits for new or expanding businesses under a system-wide, business-incentive rate program.