LEC Gets Price-cap Plan and Service Penalty
While reducing rates by $5.7 million for Citizens Utility Co.
Law & Lawyers
S&P Links Retail Wheeling to Revenue Decline
A new Standard & Poor's (S&P) report, Direct Access Threatens Utility Revenues, predicts that electric utility revenues would decline 6 to 16 percent ($10 to $26 billion) if retail direct access is implemented. S&P bases its findings on two scenarios: In the severe case, direct access occurs immediately for all customer classes and no surcharge mechanism recovers lost revenues. The more reasonable scenario assumes that only large commercial and industrial (C/I) users will exercise their right to choose direct access and that 50 percent of C/I lost revenues will be recovered in rates.
Virginia Reviews Municipalization Threat
The Virginia State Corporation Commission (SCC) has stepped into the middle of a dispute between Virginia Electric and Power Co., an electric utility, and the City of Falls Church, VA. The city had planned to displace the utility as the supplier of electricity for city residents by purchasing a minimum amount of facilities from the utility and soliciting bids for power supplies outside the local system.
S&P Investigates Effects of Competition
Standard & Poor's (S&P) has released a survey of 90 state regulators and their opinions on electric utility deregulation, conducted by RKS Research and Consulting. S&P intends to use the survey to assess the "nonquantifiable risks and opportunities" of competition.
The study found that state regulators and staff do not fully support stranded-cost recovery through cost allocation at the state level. Regulators would prefer to share stranded costs among large customers, small commercial and residential customers, and shareholders.
Maryland Still Short on Telephone Numbers
Despite a 1992 decision to add a new area code to prevent the projected exhaustion of telephone numbers, the Maryland Public Service Commission (PSC) has approved a plan to provide additional numbering capacity within exchanges by requiring 10-digit dialing for all customers. Future telephone lines would be assigned a new area code under the approved plan, but no existing customers would be required to change their current telephone numbers.
Mojave Gets Green Light, But Troubles Persist
The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) has issued an order denying rehearing, effectively allowing Mojave Pipeline Co. (MP) to construct and operate its Northward Expansion Facilities in California (Docket No. CP93-258-007). The FERC has already issued five substantive orders in the proceeding.
Especially contentious was the clash with the California Public Utility Commission (CPUC) over jurisdiction, leading to a February 1995 FERC order holding that the Northward Expansion was an interstate pipeline subject to federal oversight.
Selected Energy Stock Performance: Fourth Quarter 1995
Annual Annual EPS
Close Close Percent 52-Wk 52-Wk Div Div Book P/E Last
Company Region 10/02 12/29 Change High Low Rate Yield Value Ratio 12 Mos.Electric Utilities
AEP Company Inc. Midwest 36.13 40.50 12.11 40.63 31.25 2.40 5.93 22.68 15 2.71
Unicom Corp.
To Pool or Not to Pool? Toward a New System of Governance
What are the essential characteristics of the system of governance that will be required for a new, North American electric industry with interconnected and interdependent transmission networks and trading areas?
Electric transmission networks are natural monopolies, as are the many independent network
control systems that coordinate the use of generators and loads and preserve system reliability.
The Year Ends With a Bang
Public utility stocks showed no signs of letting up during the fourth quarter of 1995. The Public Utilities Stock Index rallied a brisk 234.66 points, or 6.38 percent, to close at 3910.01. Not to be outdone, the Dow Jones Industrial Average gained 355.86 points, or 7.47 percent, to close at 5117.12, and the S&P 500 Stock Index climbed 34.21 points, or 5.88 percent, to close at 615.93.
Certain stocks sparkled more than others:
SCANA Corp.
The Power Exchange: California Goes Competitive
Nearly three years on from the Yellow Book,1 after many long hours and thousands (em if not millions (em of pages, and following much bitter debate (linked with some murky politics), the California Public Utility Commission (CPUC) by a 3-2 majority has at last published an Order2 to introduce competition for retail customers.
The decision contains four main proposals:
s market structure
s access for custo