QF

GAS COMPETITION PLAN. Colorado releases framework for rate and service unbundling for natural gas LDCs, which includes: treatment of stranded cost, utility affiliate participation in the competitive market and supplier obligations. Docket No. 97I-0336, Aug. 19, 1997 (Colo.P.U.C.).

Local Telco Rates. Idaho directs USWEST Communications Inc. to reduce annual revenues by $327,000 and approves proposal to compensate ratepayers $4.2 million for yellow pages revenues. It also sets the rate of return on equity at 11.2 percent.Case No. USW-S-96-5, Order No.

The Missouri Public Service Commission has directed Kansas City Power & Light Co. to offer stand-by electric services to self-generation customers at market-based prices.

The rate design approved by the commission allows the utility to recover stranded costs that might otherwise be shifted to customers who continue to take bundled electric service on the utility's regulated distribution system.

The PSC approved a plan proposed by its staff that would require the utility to employ "real-time pricing" for the energy component.

Sound bites from state and federal regulators.

Electric Exit Fees. New Jersey board exempts General Motors Corp. from any exit fees imposed in the future to collect electric utilities' stranded costs, in connection with GM's plans to build a $2.2-million gas-fired cogeneration facility (PURPA-qualified) at its Linden auto assembly plant. GM said it had checked all laws and regulations and had found no current obligation to pay exit fees. Docket No. ET96090669, June 24, 1997 (N.J.B.P.U.).

Residential Gas Rates. Arkansas OKs settlement allowing Arkansas Oklahoma Gas Corp.

Sound bites from state and federal regulators.

Build vs. Buy. Finding the "build" option as the cheapest alternative when two purchased power contracts expired, Florida PSC allows Tallahassee municipal electric utility to construct a 250-megawatt, combined-cycle, natural gas-fired power plant at an existing generation site. Docket No. 961512-EM, Order No. PSC-97-0659-FOF-EM, June 9, 1997 (Fla.P.S.C.).

Special Contract Discounts. New Jersey allows Elizabethtown Gas Co.

The California Public Utilities Commission has established guidelines for the recovery of stranded costs over four years through a competition transition charge collected from existing and future customers, including those who depart the system.

The June 11 order allows recovery from 1998 through 2002 for costs associated with generation plants, nuclear settlements and QF contracts (Docket No. R.94-04-031/I.94-04-032). Costs associated with purchased power contracts, including QF contracts in place on Dec. 21, 1995, can be collected for the duration of the contract.

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit has ruled that federal antitrust laws provide no remedy for complaints by a qualifying cogeneration facility that an electric utility was impermissibly curtailing purchases under its power purchase contract with the QF.

It said that Pennsylvania's recently enacted electric restructuring law "comes too late" to make the QF's complaint a valid one.

Schuylkill Energy Resources Inc., owner and operator of an anthracite coal refuse-fired QF in Shenandoah, Pa., had filed an antitrust claim against Pennsylvania Power and Light Co.

The New York Public Service Commission has set up procedures to reimburse qualifying cogeneration and small power production facilities if any of the state's seven investor-owned electric utilities should curtail purchases of power from the QFs. The Independent Power Producers of New York Inc. blasted the decision.

The PSC said it will review QF requests for reimbursement if a utility is alleged to have curtailed purchases unfairly.

The governors of Maine and Montana (em two states with very different electricity markets (em have signed three bills into law to allow competition in the electric and natural gas industries in their respective jurisdictions.

Maine. Gov. Angus King signed an electric restructuring bill that mandates competition in the state starting March 1, 2000.

The Maine law, An Act to Restructure the State's Electric Industry, L.D. 1804, was signed on May 29. It allows for recovery of stranded costs as determined by the Maine Public Utilities Commission.

State-by-state prospects for electric customer choice.

New Mexico. Public Service Co. of New Mexico asks state PUC to begin collaborative process to draft legislation to allow retail choice of electric suppliers (Case No. 2681). Draft would be proposed to the state's Interim Legislative Committee on integrated Water and Resource Planning, for possible passage in the 1998 legislative session. By mid-June, the utility intends to initiate a plan to allow customer choice by a date certain, defining methods to handle stranded costs and reliability.

Nevada. Nevada Power Co.

Can NERC Juggle All Three En Route to Open Access?

At the year's start, the North American Electric Reliability Council decided to leave its "peer pressure" policy behind and require mandatory compliance with its reliability standards. As NERC grapples with its new policy, Public Utilities Fortnightly asked eight industry representatives how they might ensure reliability in a restructured electric industry.

It had taken time for NERC to arrive at this point, but itÆs official: Mandatory sanctions and business incentives will soon be used to enforce compliance.