Consumers

Labor Unions

ManagementDeregulation isn't just for utilities anymore.

This year, PUBLIC UTILITIES FORTNIGHTLY'S

annual Electric Executive's Forum recognizes

the growing constituency of the electric

utility industry.

So the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) won't break up the electric utility industry. But it may happen anyway (em if not at the FERC's direction, then perhaps under pressure from state regulators who, some say, are threatening to link stranded-cost recovery to vertical disaggregation.

What would a breakup mean for bonds and bondholders?

As we reported last month ("New Corporate Structures Place Bondholders at Risk," May 1, 1996, p.

The prospect of deregulation has induced a wave of mergers among electric utilities. Most of these mergers would fail an antitrust review because, by combining generation assets of interconnected utilities, they have substantially reduced potential competition in generation.

Can DSM live with

competition?

Between 1992 and 1994, demand-side management (DSM) spending grew at a median annual rate of 16 percent for a survey group of 37 electric utilities (those reporting DSM expenditures of at least $5 million for 1993). For 1994-98, however, the same utilities project a median annual decline of 3 percent in their DSM expenditures. (Taken together, the 37 utilities - located primarily along the east and west coasts and in the industrial Midwest - accounted for 51.9 percent of all DSM expenditures for U.S.

The Maine Public Utilities Commission (PUC) has approved amendments to existing rules governing ex parte and other communications designed to influence the decisionmaking process in adjudicatory proceedings.

It found the changes necessary after representatives of New England Telephone and Telegraph Co. dba NYNEX, a local exchange carrier (LEC) regulated by the PUC, were reported engaged in lobbying activities.

The Nova Scotia Utility and Review Board has directed Nova Scotia Power Inc., an electric utility, to design and submit time-of-day (TOD) rates based on energy costs for all classes of customers except residential users. At the same time it denied a call for less emphasis on resource planning, and disallowed half the costs incurred for an executive compensation incentive program.

The Board rejected a proposal by the utility to redesign rates to reflect time of use by implementing seasonal rates, using on-peak demand levels for billing purposes.

The Michigan Public Service Commission (PSC) has approved a request for certification of plans by CMS Generation Co., a wholly owned subsidiary of CMS Energy Co., to acquire an interest in an electric power supplier in Australia, as part of that country's privatization program.

According to CMS Generation, the project will remain a "totally separate entity" from the corporate parent and its principal subsidiary, Consumers Power Co.

The Rhode Island Public Utilities Commission (PUC) has approved a plan by which shareholders of Providence Gas Co., a natural gas local distribution company (LDC), will fund existing low-income assistance programs. The PUC approved the plan as part of settlement agreement in a case involving a new integrated resource plan (IRP) for the LDC.

Funds for the low-income assistance programs will come from gas-cost savings earned by the LDC under new performance-based IRP reforms approved by the PUC.

The Montana Public Service Commission (PSC) has authorized Montana Power Co. (a combined electric and natural gas utility), to increase base rates for gas distribution by $3.01 million, subject to refund.