The West Virginia Public Service Commission (PSC) has authorized Mountaineer Gas Co. to set up a method to compensate interruptible transportation customers for "banked" over-deliveries eventually used by other sales customers. The company historically permitted its transportation customers to bank excess volumes, and used the gas to reduce purchases for sales customers.

Under the new method, the company will buy current and future banked supplies at a "market determined" rate.

The New York Public Service Commission (PSC) has endorsed location routing number (LRN) technology as the most viable long-term solution to telephone number portability, although it does not expect LRN to become generally available for installation on most major central-office switching equipment until the second quarter of 1997.

The PSC noted that LRN minimizes the impact on network architecture by preserving existing routing logic and hierarchy, thus minimizing switch modifications and changes to databases and operating systems.

Noting controversy surrounding multi-year incentive agreements in utility rate cases, the New York Public Service Commission (PSC) has approved guidelines for filing multiyear rate proposals and requests to depart from approved rate plans. The guidelines deemphasize the importance of "global" settlements in such cases, and reaffirm the rights of nonsettling parties to litigate issues raised by incentive and multiyear rate proposals. The PSC acknowledged the worth of multi-year settlements, but declined to rely exclusively on such agreements.

The New Jersey Board of Public Utilities (BPU) has authorized Elizabethtown Gas Co., to change its seasonal delivery service tariff to allow third-party suppliers to bid on incremental pipeline capacity for a limited time. (Unlike other gas distributors [LDCs], Elizabethtown could not take advantage of capacity-release programs approved by the board.) The company will allocate up to 2.5 billion cubic feet of capacity for the new offering and will not contract for additional capacity to operate the program.

The New Jersey Board of Public Utilities (BPU) has approved a plan by Public Service Electric and Gas Co., a combined electric and gas utility, to reduce charges for commercial and industrial (C/I) gas sales customers to temper "dramatic" gas cost increases linked both to price moves in December at the New York Mercantile Exchange (NYMEX), and a recent switch from an annual levelized adjustment clause mechanism to an indexed monthly adjustment.

According to the BPU, the utility's C/I gas customers would see a 20-percent rate increase for January 1996.

The Maryland Public Service Commission (PSC) has authorized AT&T Communications of Maryland, Inc. to compete with local exchange telephone carriers (LECs) throughout the state as a "co-carrier and reseller." According to the PSC, AT&T plans to enter the LEC market as a reseller, expanding over time to offer a full range of facilities-based services.

By separate order, the PSC opened a new proceeding to set wholesale prices for the components of local exchange services.

The Arizona Corporation Commission has turned down a bid by Tucson Electric Power Co.

One popular model in electric utility restructuring assumes a fully competitive merchant segment providing retail energy services. These "retail energy service companies," or RESCOs, would offer services described as heating, cooling, ventilation, lighting, drive power, information, and communications.

Sound bites from state and federal regulators.

Electric Restructuring. North Dakota opens investigation on electric utility restructuring, asking how direct access might affect state utility customers, given the relatively small number of large commercial users. Case No. PU-439-96-54, Feb. 20, 1996 (N.D.P.S.C.).

Gas Storage Costs.

The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) has conditionally approved market-based rates for power sales by MidAmerican Energy Co., finding a lack of generation market dominance (Docket No. ER96-719-000).

In 1994, the FERC granted MidAmerican's affiliate power marketer, InterCoast Power Marketing Co., authority to sell power at market-based rates, conditioned on the submission by Iowa-Illinois Gas & Electric Co. (MidAmerica's predecessor in interest) of a tariff providing comparable transmission service.