Northern Indiana Public Service Co. (NIPSCO) and IBM have developed the Integrity/Customer Services System, which provides any customer service with one telephone call. Customer questions that previously required several transfers will now be handled by a single representative who has access to billing, service, and repair information. Property owners with several buildings or several tenants at one building will receive a combined bill, rather than separate bills for each meter.

A division of UtiliCorp United has entered into an agreement to provide heating and cooling services to 170 public school districts in southern California. The UtiliCorp marketing branch, Broad Street/Energy One, will supply natural gas at prices below that of the local utility. The participating school districts spend about $12 million a year for natural gas to heat and cool their school buildings. "This is a unique contract because it shows quite dramatically how everyone can benefit from deregulation," said Brooks Burton, Energy One vice president.

It looks like PacifiCorp will have a little competition down under. A $1.2-billion conditional bid for an Australian electric utility (em made by an Entergy subsidiary, Entergy Power Group (em has been accepted by the State of Victoria.

The City of San Francisco has retained Strategic Energy Ltd. (SEL) to study whether the municipality should expand its own utility. "We will evaluate whether it makes sense for the citizens of San Francisco to break from Pacific Gas & Electric and expand their own electric utility," said SEL president Richard Zomnir.

The Virginia State Corporation Commission (SCC) has exercised jurisdiction and declared that the City of Falls Church must obtain its approval before attempting to condemn electric facilities owned by Virginia Power Co. (Vepco). Vepco had filed a petition with the SCC, claiming that Falls Church intended to oust the utility from serving the area. Falls Church failed to contest the petition or respond to allegations that the SCC did not have jurisdiction. The utility's petition alleged that the city plans to condemn Vepco meters and other facilities.

jü( )l, n: A unit of energy measurement equal to a watt-second.

Tenneco Energy and Chinese Petroleum Corp.'s new alliance plans to work on natural gas transmission facilities, power plants, and other energy ventures in Taiwan and North America. Their first project is a

600-Mw natural gas-fired power plant near Taipei, expected to go on line in June 1998. CPC is one of Asia's largest state-owned energy companies; Tenneco Energy, of Houston, transports or markets about 16 percent of the natural gas used in the United States.

Robert W. Foy replaced Charles H. "Bud" Stump as chairman of California Water Services Co. Stump, who has been with the company 45 years, will remain on the board. Foy, president and CEO of Pacific Storage Co., has been a CWS director since 1977.

The Gas Research Institute board of directors elected Christine A. Hansen and Stanley C. Horton as new members. Hansen, executive director of the Interstate Oil and Gas Compact Commission, joins GRI as an at-large director.

As I began to write this column, the California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) was slated in less than 30 minutes (this time, for real) to unveil its final proposed plan to restructure the electric utility industry. After the deed was done, on Wednesday, December 20, I logged on to ftp.cpuc.ca.gov and downloaded the text of the two opinions, issued by California commissioners Daniel Fessler and Jessie Knight.

Why will cost-of-service studies continue to prove useful in a competitive market?

Cost is one of more than a dozen factors to consider in setting prices, whether in a regulated environment or a competitive regime. However, the relative significance of these factors will change under competition, when understanding the true cost of an individual service will actually become more important than under regulation.

Anchor Glass Tries to Shake JCP&L Stranglehold

By Joseph F. Schuler, Jr.

Why assume that a city or town

can't run a power plant?

It wasn't a demand for a $2-million rate cut. It was a request for a rate in line with neighboring New Jersey utilities.

That's how Walter J.