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Law & Lawyers

Transmission or Distribution? Reengineering Cost-of-Service Studies for the Emerging Competitive Market

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.

Byline: 
John S. Ferguson
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Looking for a Market Rate

Looking for a Market Rate:

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.

Byline: 
Joseph F. Schuler, Jr.
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Price Risk Management: Electric Power vs. Natural Gas

The deregulated power market will feature large numbers of buyers and sellers. Buyers will worry that prices will rise unexpectedly above current levels; sellers will worry that prices will fall unexpectedly. Some will be interested in fixed-price forward deals that protect them from these risks.

Byline: 
Judah Rosa, and Charles Mann
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Saying "No" to Municipalization

On November 7, 1995, voters in Aberdeen, NJ, went to the polls to elect local and state officials. Also on the ballot were public questions (em including one asking Aberdeen residents whether the township should build or acquire electric transmission and distribution facilities. Eighty-six percent of the voters nixed the idea. What follows is a case study of how the issue got on the ballot and how the local utility defeated the effort. The story reveals what it takes to defeat a municipalization drive: support from municipal government, the public, and your union.

Byline: 
James S. Lanard, and Glenn O. Steiger
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Just in Time: EDI for Gas Nominations

To listen to some, EDI stands for "Everybody's Doing It." But there's more to it than that. The natural gas market is not simply about electronic bulletin boards (EBBs) or electronic data interchange (EDI), which reconciles potentially inconsistent data, protocols, and trading customs among pipelines, shippers, distributors, and end users. Instead, it should be about solutions (em solutions that work across regions, across enterprises.

EDI is tough.

Byline: 
Greg M. Lander
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Washington Adopts Restructuring Principles

The Washington Utilities and Transportation Commission (UTC) has issued a policy statement of eight principles as a guide to adapting its regulatory authority to the "more competitive circumstances facing the state's electric industry." The statement is not binding on the UTC or on parties to formal proceedings.

The UTC said it would strive to promote the "natural" evolution of efficient markets, but that its primary goals would remain affordable prices for electric service, protecting the long-term integrity of the system, and preventing noneconomic bypass and attendant

Byline: 
Phillip S. Cross
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FERC Wants Transmission Info on the Net

The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) has released proposed rules for real-time information networks and standards of conduct, a "critical" supplement to its electric transmission open-access NOPR (Docket No. RM95-9-000). The FERC wants all utilities to set up information networks that give wholesale sellers and purchasers of electricity equal access to information concerning availability and prices.

Byline: 
Lori A. Burkhart
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Depreciation Reserve Soaks Up Stranded Investment

Save a Nickel, Save a Dime

Is One Merger as Good as Another?

In late November, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) put off immediate approval of the proposed merger between The Washington Water Power Co. and Sierra Pacific Resources (to form "Altus"), and set the case for hearing. The reason? The FERC doubted whether the merger would achieve operational efficiencies between the two noncontiguous utilities.

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California Set ROE for 1996

Energy utilities in California will be permitted to set charges at a level high enough to earn an 11.6-percent return on equity (ROE) for 1996. Pacific Gas and Electric Co. was also awarded a separate 50-basis-point risk premium (12.01 percent) for the 70/30 debt/equity ratio associated with its natural gas pipeline expansion project.

The award reduces the ROE for all of the state's utilities except Sierra Pacific Power Co., which operated under an ROE allowance of 11.3 percent last year. Both Southwest Gas Corp.

Byline: 
Phillip S. Cross
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