Commission

The staff of the New York Public Service Commission has asked for public comment on its report, which found the most effective way to establish competition in natural gas supply is to separate the merchant and distribution functions.

The report said non-regulated entities would provide all future merchant functions. These entities will share the supplier of last resort obligations along with local distribution companies and will share in costs of social programs.

Portland General Electric doesn't want to sell electricity anymore.

PGE, a wholly owned subsidiary of Enron, wants to focus on the transmission and distribution of electricity and has asked the Oregon Public Utilities Commission to allow all 670,000 of its customers to choose their electric provider.

It also has proposed a new way to calculate franchise fees in an unbundled environment.

In its customer choice proposal, PGE said restructuring had triggered the need for changes in the way franchise fees are calculated.

AT Washington Water Power, Bobby Schmidt was appointed director of the company, and Paul A. Redmond announced his retirement as chair and CEO. Redmond started with the company in 1965. Previously, Schmidt worked as an independent trader in Chicago.

MDU Resources Group Inc. has promoted Martin A. White from senior vice president, corporate development to president and CEO. White, who has been with the company since 1991, will replace retiring president H.J. Mellen Jr.

Robert L. Goocher was promoted to president of AGL Resources Service Co. from executive vice president and COO.

THE POSSIBILITIES ARE ENDLESS," SO THE ADS SAY.

But what about a hostile bailout? I wouldn't have believed it myself until the news arrived, forcing me to rewrite this column at press time.

Imagine: Enron offering to reimburse PECO Energy for $5.4 billion in stranded costs, while taking on the role as the electricity provider of last resort for southeast Pennsylvania.

No doubt you have already read a half-dozen news stories about Enron's play for PECO. The details should sound familiar; the Philly papers were filled with lively quotes. On Oct.

To help gas customers take advantage of unbundled services, the New York Public Service Commission has authorized National Fuel Gas Distribution Corp. to modify its existing firm transportation service procedures to allow marketers to gain access to a share of utility storage capacity, for use in delivering the required volume of gas to the city gate.

In another ruling, the commission approved a similar, but less innovative storage proposal for firm transportation customers served by Central Hudson Gas & Electric Corp.

An Illinois appeals court has questioned the idea that Commonwealth Edison Co. faces a higher degree of risk than other utilities (and thus deserves a higher return on equity), but also has affirmed the "used and useful" status of the company's Byron 2 and Braidwood 1 & 2 nuclear units, as approved by the Illinois Commerce Commission in a 1995 rate case order, which had helped justify a $303-million increase in annual rates.

The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission invited industry representatives to Washington, D.C., in July to talk about the electric utility industry's implementation of OASIS, or open-access, same-time information system, which is used to monitor and schedule electric transmission capacity.

It ended up with an earful about problems on the on-line system.

Gerry Cauley, of the industry's volunteer "How Working Group," said, "Overall, the OASIS does provide comparable access," and the system is seeing reservation activity at expected levels.

With benefits unclear, PUCs will "go slow."

California, New Hampshire, Massachusetts, Nevada, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, and Vermont have given customers the right to choose their electric providers.

Other states are considering similar legislation.

In Congress, U.S. representatives Schaefer (R-Colo.), Markey (D-Mass.), DeLay (R-Tex.), and U.S. Sen. Bumpers (D-Ark.) and others have slapped bills on the table that would give choice to electric customers on a national scale.

Campaign for a Prosperous Georgia has asked the United States Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit to reconsider and vacate orders by the Securities and Exchange Commission allowing Southern Co. to move forward with investments in foreign companies.

CPG claims that the SEC should have denied the utility's request to acquire foreign utilities using financing and guarantees of more than 50 percent of retained earnings. The company claimed that such acquisitions violate "safe harbor" limits. The filing points to the recent agreement by Southern Co.

Six out of eight members of the New York Power Pool have asked the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission to approve a request to provide electricity, installed capacity and ancillary services at market-based rates in the state's restructured market.

Included in the Aug. 15 filing are market power analyses for individual members and a plan for monitoring the proposed New York ISO. According to the utilities, the analyses demonstrate that the market under the proposed industry structure will be workably competitive. They also support the market-based rate proposal.