Midwest panel fears service decline, sees small companies as speed bumps on road to competition.
"Mergers and restructuring" could have described the panel, but "Four Weddings and a Funeral" gave the session the cinematic spin it demanded.
Craig A.
Uncle Sam buys a lot of power. Who supplies it may depend upon Article I, Sec. 8, Clause 17.
Today's intense competition to sell power should not overlook one large customer - the federal government. The Department of Defense alone consumed $1.4 billion worth of power in fiscal year 1994. Recently, one utility executive was quoted as saying: "We've got power marketers foaming at the mouth for DOD's business."%n1%n
Yet how does a marketer get the business of a federal agency, office or installation if retail wheeling is not mandated?
Bruce Radford's May 15 "Frontlines" (p. 4) commentary on the Sears Tower/QST cogeneration project misses the point. I would like to correct his misconceptions and clarify the issues by looking at them from a marketplace viewpoint rather than a utility-based viewpoint.
First of all, the Sears Tower's savings are more than an "allegation." QST's proposed cogeneration facility for the Sears Tower will reduce the cost of electric power supply to the tower by about $2 million per year compared to what it costs under ComEd's current rates.
In reference to your May 15 article, "Report Finds Problems With Choice Pilot" ("Headlines," p. 16), following is the industrial customers' response to the report.
STATEMENT
On May 7, 1997, a group of large industrial consumers of electricity on the Illinois Power Co. system, referred to as the Illinois Industrial Energy Consumers, filed a response to a recently submitted report by Illinois Power Co., pertaining to the Direct Energy Access (DEAS) report.
A coalition of Michigan electric utility customer groups and other entities has proposed an electric restructuring bill in lieu of the plan adopted by the Michigan Public Service Commission on June 5.
"Six months ago, many from this same group came together to point out that the commission's plan, if implemented, would be too slow, would favor the state's largest utilities and would result in few, if any, real savings for customers," said David Dornbos Sr., chair of Association of Businesses Advocating Tariff Equity.
Nearly a year and a half after passage of the federal Telecommunications Act of 1996, real competition has yet to emerge in Indiana in local telephone markets, according to a report issued by the Indiana Regulatory Commission.
Nevertheless, the U.R.C. says it anticipates making competitive choices available to local consumers in the coming months.
Orange and Rockland Utilities has expressed "extreme disappointment" with a preliminary decision issued by a judge at the New York Public Service Commission that concerns O&R's proposed electric restructuring settlement. (See, Case 96-E-0900, Opinion No. 96-12.)
On July 2, Administrative Law Judge Stewart C. Boschwitz ruled that unwillingness by O&R to divest its generation company would create potential anti-competitive situations and could hurt ratepayers.
Nevada Gov. Bob Miller (D) on July 17 signed into law an electric restructuring bill to bring competition to the state starting July 9, 1999.
AB 366 will split the state's utility commission into a three-member Nevada Public Utilities Commission and a three-member Transportation Service Authority. The commission would employ a rulemaking proceeding to unbundle rates, design consumer safeguards and set parameters for stranded costs.
Anatomy of a nuclear waste site death Centerior Energy is mystified. Until June 26, Ohio gladly was on its way to hosting a low-level radioactive waste disposal site. Then suddenly at a three-hour meeting, 13 years of planning crashed and burned.
On that day, the Midwest Interstate Low-Level Radioactive Waste Commission voted to derail development of a low-level waste disposal facility in Ohio. The commission represents the Midwest Compact, which comprises Ohio, Indiana, Iowa, Minnesota, Missouri and Wisconsin.
President Clinton appointed James J. Hoecker chair of the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission. Hoecker, former commissioner of the FERC, replaces Elizabeth Moler who was appointed deputy energy secretary at the Department of Energy.
Walter Massey, president of Morehouse College, was selected by Secretary of Energy Federico F. Peña to replace Robert Hanfling as chair of the Secretary of Energy Advisory Board. Also at SEAB, Skila Harris was elected executive director. Prior to her election, Harris was special assistant to Vice President Al Gore.
Enron Corp. promoted Cynthia C.