Our industry stands at the threshold of significant change. Competitive forces and significant technological advances beckon the nation's electric utilities to step forward. The electric industry has the opportunity to create a future that provides the benefits of competition to all customer groups. If we don't restructure, someone else will do it for us.
The other day I heard a short news item on National Public Radio that made me stop and think. The item ran something like this: "Maxwell House has announced it will cut the price of its loose ground coffee to reflect a drop in the coffee futures market several months out."
Wasn't that easy? Call it integrated resource planning in the espresso lane. Note what Maxwell House did not do. It did not solicit a demand forecast or run the PROMOD computer model.
In the United States, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) has undertaken the task of guiding the electric power industry from regulation to competition. But unless the FERC develops a plan to consider all facets of electric deregulation at the same time, we may end up driving on the wrong side of the road.
Last October the FERC issued its policy statement on electric transmission pricing. See, Inquiry Concern. Pricing Policy for Trans. Servs.
The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) has adopted a policy statement on hydroelectric plant decommissioning, claiming authority to deny new project licenses when existing licenses expire and to order owners to remove a dam during the relicensing process. These measures would only be applied if the FERC concludes that a project, no matter how many conditions were imposed, could no longer meet the comprehensive development standard of the Federal Power Act (FPA) (Docket No. RM93-23-000).
The statement was one of three hydroelectric orders considered as a group.
The fledgling industry is also staking out its regulatory territory. Notably, on December 14, the FERC ordered the Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) to provide nonfirm transmission service to AES Power Inc.
In the energy industry, no question defies resolution more than electromagnetic fields (EMF).
The Edison Electric Institute (EEI) reported in late December that electric utilities have contributed close to $80 million for EMF research since the early 1970s. And new efforts are taking shape.
SIDE SUBHEAD
Everyone talks about them.
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit has upheld a Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) finding that the municipal preference in hydropower project relicensing cases did not apply to "orphaned" facilities. Facilities are considered orphaned if the current license holder files a notice of intent to apply for a relicense, but then fails to file a timely application.