A new coalition of 82 varied organizations (em including businesses, consumers, environmentalists, and utilities (em has announced support for the California Public Utility Commission's (CPUC's) majority proposal to restructure the electric industry.

Who's Tripping?

It requires a truly acrobatic stretch of the imagination to reach the same conclusions as Pennsylvania Commissioner John Hanger in his article, "Electric Reliability: How PJM Tripped on Gas-Fired Power Plants" (May l, 1995). The truth is that the natural gas system performed efficiently and reliably in January 1994, exactly as planned. The operators of the power plants in question purchased interruptible gas-transportation contracts to keep their fuel costs low.

United Water has named Robert A. Gerber, Jr. v.p. of corporate law for United Water Management & Services, a subsidiary.

AstroPower, Inc., a semi-conductor company specializing in photovoltaic energy conversion and optoelectric technology, has appointed Dr. George W. Roland v.p. and g.m. of its solar power business.

Eldon A. Cotton, assistant g.m.-power for the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power, was named president of the American Public Power Association.

For a good half a century, electric regulation has meant law, accounting, and economics. But no more. Now it's all about computers, telecommunications, and file-transfer protocols. Forget about CWIP, AFUDC, double leverage, and interest synchronization. They are all irrelevant.

PV technology combined with storage offers a cost-effective alternative to capacity additions.By John Byrne,

Young-Doo Wang,

Ralph Nigro, and

Steven E. Letendre

Until recently, both regulators and electric utilities have considered photovoltaic (PV) technology (i.e., solar cells) an unattractive

energy-supply option because of its relatively high cost. Now, however, a number of utilities have shown interest in using PV for peak-shaving.

mergers? For

instance, why

combine two vertically integrated utilities when the market may call for disaggregation?

All deregulating industries share the same lesson: profits eventually decline, leading to consolidation. Electric utilities are no different.

Are utilities working at top productive capacity? A novel look at 19 investor-owned electrics in the Sun Belt.

Major restructuring is expected to hit investor-owned utilities (IOUs) over the next decade. Competitive market forces, in place of rate-of-return regulation, will require many companies to evaluate their resource allocations. No longer will singular adjustments in resource use suffice when both capital and labor resources must be realigned.

The Geneva summit between Ronald Reagan and Mikhail Gorbachev signaled the beginning of the end of the Cold War. With a diminished threat of East-West confrontation, countries throughout the world gradually reoriented their priorities (em away from politico-military security and toward economic development. To paraphrase Woodrow Wilson, the end of the Cold War had made the world "safe for capitalism."Now, 10 years later, with a few notable exceptions in the Balkans and elsewhere, evidence abounds to support that appraisal, from Argentina to Prague to Manila.

The Massachusetts Department of Public Utilities (DPU) has granted preliminary approval to a water utility's proposal to "project finance" the cost of a new treatment facility required to comply with federal and state laws. The utility, Massachusetts-American Water Co., had proposed forming a special purpose corporation solely to finance the plant. The new corporation would lease the facility to the utility, using the payments to repay tax-exempt bonds issued under the financing plan.