Law & Lawyers

ISOs as Market Regulators The Emerging Debate

IN A RECENT SPEECH TO A SOPHISTICATED WASHINGTON AUDIence of electric industry players, FERC Commissioner William Massey raised a difficult question: "Can ISOs become self-policing institutions, thereby allowing FERC to embrace light-handed regulation of transmission?"

In answering his own question, Massey confirmed a quasi-judicial role for independent system operators (em but only if they are "equipped with proper operational rules, including market monitoring plans that report market power abuses and contemplate enforcement mechanisms to assure compliance." %n1%n

Despite such op

Byline: 
Jeremiah D. Lambert
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Selling Electricity Online? What the Internet Could Mean for Deregulation

IS IT A FAD OR BUSINESS? According to a recent SmartMoney %n1%n article, about 3 million customers traded $120 million in securities on the Internet last year, generating $700 million in commissions for online trading firms.

While this sum marks just 5 percent of total commissions for securities trading, it accounts for a healthy 30 percent of commissions for discount brokerage. Online trading firms, nonexistent several years ago, now total more than 50.

Byline: 
Edward P. Meehan
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Frontlines

ATTENDED ANY HEARINGS LATELY AT THE FEDERAL ENERGY Regulatory Commission? They're getting ugly. I see a federal agency under siege (em from without and from within.

The Commission seems to have lost the easy confidence that reigned during Elizabeth Moler's tenure. Don't blame new Chairman James Hoecker. He's getting it from all sides, and it's not his fault.

Consider the bottomless pit known as electric system "reliability." We need new laws to pin down FERC authority.

Byline: 
Bruce W. Radford
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Pyramid Schemes A Black Eye for Power Retailing?

ON MARCH 26, JUST BEFORE IT OPENED THE STATE'S electricity market at midnight on the 31st, the California Public Utilities Commission announced new interim rules to protect consumers, plus this warning: "Any entity who is considering doing anything contrary to [state law] regarding electric restructuring, and [this] decision adopting such safeguards, should think twice."

Ostensibly, that advice followed from last year's passage of State S.B.

Byline: 
David Soyka
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Electric Reliability Sanctions or Commerce?

EARLIER IN THIS DECADE, FERC CHAIRMAN MARTIN ALLDAY delivered his famous quote: "Everybody is somebody's native load customer."

Today, that truism has fallen under attack. It could go out the window if power marketers get their wish. One group of marketers has asked the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission to open a new rulemaking on electric system reliability. This group proposes to end the notion of transmission responding to load.

Byline: 
Bruce W. Radford
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Frontlines

CALIFORNIA IS AT IT AGAIN. THE SUBJECT IS NATURAL GAS. What the "blue book" promised for electricity, the newly issued "green book" says it will do for gas.

On Jan. 21, the Division of Strategic Planning at the state public utilities commission issued a new 125-page study, Strategies for Natural Gas Reform: Exploring Options for Converging Energy Markets. On the same day, the PUC opened a new rulemaking (R. 98-01-011), asking for input on the DSP report and posing its own list of some 25 questions on where to go with gas.

Byline: 
Bruce W. Radford
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People

THE Oregon Public Utility Commission named Bill Warren director of its utility program. Warren will replace Mike Kane, who is retiring. Currently, Warren serves as administrator of the electric and natural gas division of the utility program.

Michael J. Mujadin was named executive vice president of Nitrotec Corp. and president of Nitrotec's wholly owned subsidiary Nitrotec Energy Corp. Previously, Mujadin was executive vice president of Coastal Corp.'s ANR Storage Co.

Consolidated Natural Gas Co. elected Raymond E. Galvin to its board of directors.

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News Digest

Courts

NITROGEN-OXIDE EMISSION LIMITS. Denying an appeal by electric utilities and industry groups against rules proposed by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency for emission limits for nitrogen oxides at certain electric utility boilers, a federal appeals court has ruled that EPA properly interpreted the Clean Air Act. The act allows EPA to set NOx limits for certain electric utility boilers if it could show that more effective technology for low-NOx burners was available, the court said.

Byline: 
Lori A. Burkhart, Phillip S. Cross, and Beth Lewis
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Off Peak

BACK IN DECEMBER 1995, THE CALIFORNIA PUBLIC Utilities Commission launched a two-year pilot program to test the idea of letting builders and contractors design lateral distribution facilities for residential gas and electric service. Private firms would consult with utilities, who would credit contractors for costs saved by outsourcing. More than 250 subdivisions participated.

Late last year, the PUC declared the program an unqualified success.

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