But does anyone know the real price of power?

You've read the headlines from Maine - how regulators asked for bids for competitive electricity but got prices higher than the old regulated rate.

But it gets worse. The more open the market, the higher the bid.

Central Maine Power and Bangor Hydro-Electric operate within ISO New England, which now is open for competition.

The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission appointed Bud Earley policy advisor on electric matters. Earley most recently served as director of the electric policy division of the FERC's Office of Economic Policy. The FERC named Bobbie J. McCartney an administrative law judge. She previously served as deputy chief administrative law judge in the Social Security Administration's Office of Hearings and Appeals.

The Bonneville Power Administration named Jeff Stier its new vice president of national relations. Stier joins BPA after 12 years on the staff of Rep.

Steep environmental costs mean coal-fired power's competitive edge will drop by half.

A mid increasing pressures to reduce costs, the competitive positions and profitability of U.S. coal-fired power plants will change dramatically in the near-term. Resource Data International Inc.

State PUCs

Electric Standard Offers. Connecticut OK'd a regulated standard offer distribution rate of 10.84 cents per kilowatt-hour for United Illuminating Co. The rate included subcomponent rates:

Gen. Shopping Credit 4.52 cents

T&D Regulated Service 3.89 cents

Systems Benefit Charge 0.17 cents

Compet. Transition Charge 1.91 cents

Conservation Funding 0.3 cents

Renewable Energy Funding 0.05 cents

The T&D charge was calculated without backing out unbundled retail transmission subject to FERC jurisdiction. Docket No. 99-03-35, Oct.

With encryption of name and address - but disclosure of usage and billing - customers can have their cake and eat it too.

How to assure consumer privacy in energy deregulation has utilities, energy marketers and regulators in a dither.

With a deregulating market, utilities must share their consumer data with energy marketers in their territories. The more information energy marketers have about consumers, the better the products, prices and payment plans they can offer. This information, however, may include sensitive details about a consumer's finances and habits.

Not so fast. But gas and electric utilities may follow telecom's hiring boom.

According to the latest labor statistics, employment levels in the communications and public utilities industries remained flat during the past year. (Communications, as defined by the U.S. Labor Department, includes telecommunications.) Rather than indicating a reversal of the declining staff levels at utilities, however, this grouping of industries cloaks hiring growth of nearly 40 percent in communications and continuing cuts in the energy, gas and sanitary services sectors.

U.S.

A line-by-line case study of two high-priced portfolios, comparing fixed, variable and capital costs against forecasts of regional market prices.

A multi-billion-dollar wave of utility divestiture and power plant auctions has taken place during the last 18 months. Table 1 details some of these transactions, including the purchase price on a dollar-per-kilowatt basis and as a multiple of net book value. These measures frequently are cited as indications that buyers paid too much.

Illinois regulator Ruth Kretschmer takes a stand against deals that would rub out competitors.

I can't recall seeing a more cogent, convincing andpassionate plea for utility regulators to get off their backsides and actually take a stand on something, as when just the other day, I came across the dissenting opinion issued Sept. 23 by Ruth Kretschmer, of the Illinois Commerce Commission. There she takes her own agency to task for voting (3-2) to approve the proposed mega-merger between the telephone giant SBC Communications Inc.

State PUCs

Gas Appliance Repair.

But who gets a slice of the pie?

In August the Bonneville Power Administration released its proposed wholesale electric rates for the five-year period from 2002 to 2006. The controversial proposal is subject to five months of scrutiny, including eight public hearings from Sept. 30 through Oct. 14, with adoption of final rates expected early in 2000.

In this era of emerging competitive markets, relatively low-priced federal power is prized by wholesale customers in the BPA's Northwestern U.S. service territory.