Puget Sound Energy

Finding the Utility's Core

Where should outsourcing end—and the real utility begin?

When utilities evaluate business process outsourcing, they need to determine which processes are most advantageous to outsource—core or non-core? Rather than debating the merits of core or non-core, perhaps the more critical questions utilities should ask are: How are our key processes performing? Are they cost-efficient and effective? Do they enhance or inhibit our corporate performance?

Outsourcing: All It's Cracked Up to Be?

Despite several high-profile deals, utilities remain cautious about outsourcing their key business processes.

It seems that "outsourcing" has become a dirty word among utility executives. But though left unsaid in polite conversation, the word is still on everybody's mind. They might even be doing it. They just aren't talking about it.

Windpower: Beyond Boom and Bust

Windpower is caught in a vicious cycle of Washington politics. Escaping the cycle will require visionary leadership in Congress and the utility industry.

With the Production Tax Credit subject to the whims of a fickle Congress, U.S. windpower remains in an ongoing state of uncertainty. Will the United States embrace the technology?

Merchant Power: Ratepayers Back At Risk

A review of power plant deals in 2004 shows that utilities are buying.

Whether evolution or devolution, the merchant deals done to date show movement to a familiar structure; ratepayers are back at risk. While ratepayers have benefitted from merchant plants, they also paid since competition began with PURPA in 1978, and many of the acquisitions put them at risk for future changes in power values and fuel costs.

The Customer as Strategic Asset

ECM

ECM

Achieving financial returns from increasing customer satisfaction.

Every utility focuses on effectively managing infrastructure and capital assets. However, one important balance sheet asset may be overlooked and under-leveraged-the customer.

Generation Roundtable: Power Flux

Generators struggle to plan for the future as they cope with an unstable present.

Generators struggle to plan for the future as they cope with an unstable present.

When the acting administrator at the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), Marianne Horinko, signed the EPA's "routine replacement" rule on Aug. 27, 2003, she proclaimed that the new approach to Clean Air Act regulation would "provide … power plants with the regulatory certainty they need."

People

New Positions:

People

New Positions:

AEP named John D. Harper vice president of general services. Harper has been with AEP since 2000, most recently as vice president of corporate technology development.

Paul M. Barbas joined the senior management at Chesapeake Service Co., taking on the role of president. He also becomes vice president of Chesapeake Utilities Corp. Barbas previously was executive vice president of Allegheny Power.

People

New Hires:

New Hires:

DPL Inc. named James V. Mahoney president of DPL Energy LLC. Mahoney has been with EarthFirst Technologies since 2001.

The board of directors of Piedmont Natural Gas elected Kim R. Cocklin senior vice president and general counsel. Cocklin's previous experience includes time as senior vice president at Williams Gas Pipeline and senior vice president and general counsel at Texas Gas Transmission Corp.

People



Glenn P. Barba has been elected vice president and controller of Consumers Energy. He joined the utility in 2001 as controller. Previously, he served as controller for CMS Generation. Before joining CMS Generation in 1997, Barba spent nine years in public accounting, with a focus on the energy industry. Consumers Energy also named Kim D. Morris, a 20-year human resources veteran at the company, as human resources director for Consumers Energy's generating plants.