Sound bites from state and federal regulators.
Offsystem Gas Sales. Florida permits new LDC tariff for sales to offsystem customers. LDC recovers all variable costs, including $100 administrative charge per transaction; splits nongas charges with firm customers, crediting administrative charges to PGA rate. Docket No. 960185-GU, PSC-96-0482-FOF-GU, Apr. 5, 1996 (Fl.P.S.C.).
Master Metering.
Forecasts Send ROEs Wide of the Mark
In a recent "Offpeak" ("Forecasting is Just That," Jan. 1, 1996, p. 54), David Foti and Clay Denton report data showing the percentage of error found in various seven-year forecasts of natural gas prices (1988-94) produced by the American Gas Association (A.G.A.), Energy Information Administration (EIA), DRI/McGraw-Hill (DRI), Gas Research Institute, and WEFA Group. These errors ranged from approximately 50 to 95 percent.
With a CTC likely to cover stranded costs,
aggregators must somehow find power cheap
enough to offer real savings.
Retail aggregation: Wherever you stand, it appears 1998 could be the year of reckoning.
By then (em say those watching the future of aggregation in the "leader" states of California, New York, Massachusetts, and New Hampshire (em rulemakings will have sorted out the issues of stranded costs, distribution, and reliability.
The merger voltage (I) is rising on the electric grid, but it remains to be seen which will win out: current (E) policy or resistance (R) to it.
On November 8, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) approved a major rate settlement on pipeline corrosion issues for the owners of the Trans Alaska Pipeline Systems (TAPS), based on a November 1994 agreement in principle among the parties. The settlement results from an alternate dispute resolution (ADR) technique that employed a mini-trial and involved high-level representatives for all parties.
The decision in September by Malcolm S. Forbes, Jr., millionaire businessman sans political experience, to launch a bid for the White House in 1996 prompts comparison with another millionaire businessman and political neophyte, Wendell L. Willkie, who defied conventional wisdom 55 years ago and won the GOP nomination to oppose Franklin D. Roosevelt in the 1940 Presidential election.
Forbes himself relishes the comparison.
At the November 1, 1995, meeting of the Natural Gas Roundtable in Washington, DC, a representative of the American Gas Association (A.G.A.) launched a blistering attack against the Energy Information Agency (EIA) for its forecasts of natural gas prices. In essence, A.G.A. complains that EIA's long-term forecasts have proven unreasonably high, softening enthusiam for gas-burning equipment (from turbines to gas water heaters).
As quoted by Gas Daily, A.G.A.'s representative said: "The bottom line is whose numbers are right.
The New Hampshire Public Utilities Commission (PUC) has issued preliminary guidelines for a pilot program to examine the implications of retail competition in the electric industry. The guidelines, which respond to a state law mandating creation of a retail competition pilot, propose opening 3 percent of each electric utility's peak load to competitive suppliers of electric power.
Public Service Electric and Gas Co. (PSE&G) and Merck & Co. have announced a trade of emission reduction credits as part of a broad initiative to develop a market-based response to combat the ozone nonattainment problems in the Northeast. PSE&G will sell a minimum of 10 and a maximum of 75 tons of nitrogen oxide (NOx) pollution reductions, called "surplus discrete emission reductions" (SDRs), to Merck in 1995. Merck will use the SDRs to comply with environmental requirements at two industrial boilers.
The Virginia Corporation Commission has approved an $8.3-million repayment by Virginia Power (VP) for excessive fuel costs resulting from a 1991 coal-hauling contract with CSX Transportation Inc. The contract became the focus of attention during a dispute last year between the utility and its corporate parent, Dominion Resources, Inc. (DRI).
Commission staff found in a January report that DRI chairman and CEO Thomas E. Capps had pressured VP into the contract, which was expected to benefit the company.