San Diego Gas & Electric

The California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) has approved loan guarantees of up to $250 million to fund development of computer hardware and software to help the electric industry establish the independent system operator (ISO) and the Power Exchange (PX), both key components of the CPUC's proposed restructuring plan.

Pacific Gas & Electric Co. and Southern California Edison Co. each had asked for $112.5 million in loan guarantees; San Diego Gas & Electric Co. had asked for $25 million.

The California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) has approved a proposal by San Diego Gas & Electric Co. (SDG&E) to switch to an automatic adjustment mechanism to determine cost of capital (em a move that could save the utility approximately $100,000 per year in regulatory costs.

In a case involving San Diego Gas & Electric Co. (SDG&E), the California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) has OK'd new guidelines for preapproved contracts designed to obtain, attract, or retain new electric customers. The guidelines also apply to contracts designed to stem self-generation or avoid customer flight out of state.

The CPUC also will allow SDG&E to negotiate a rate discount contract with any customer, for any purpose, as long as shareholders absorb 100 percent of revenue losses and rates reflect a price floor based on customer-specific marginal cost.

The old shibboleth to some extent is literally true. The electric industry appears different from the natural gas industry in that demand must be matched immediately with production. No viable location comes to mind to put away some of that extra power until it is needed. But literal truth is not necessarily the whole story.

While the cost of common household goods like bread and milk increased 77 and 50 percent, respectively, from 1985 to 1995, the average residential electricity bill for customers of San Diego Gas & Electric Co. (SDG&E) dropped 13.6 percent over the same period, according to San Diego Chamber of Commerce statistics.

That trend shows no sign of abating. In fact, low rates are fast becoming a staple for the utility's 1.2 million electric customers.

Coopers & Lybrand has released its 1996 Electric Municipalization Review, which examines the two municipalizations completed since the Energy Policy Act of 1992: Broken Bow, OK, and Bozrah, CT.

Broken Bow, which began operating in 1995, serves the new six-megawatt (Mw) load of one industrial customer and owns no electric facilities; Public Service Co. of Oklahoma serves town residents. The Town of Bozrah had been served by a privately held corporation, Bozrah Light & Power (BL&P), whose owner was retiring and wanted to sell.

The three largest California investor-owned utilities (IOUs) (em Pacific Gas and Electric Co., San Diego Gas & Electric Co. (SDGE), and Southern California Edison Co. (SCE) have circulated for comment working drafts of future Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) filings concerning a deregulated electricity industry.

One 150-page proposal asks that operational dispatch control of transmission facilities be conveyed to an ISO, beginning January 1, 1998.

Annual Annual EPS

Close Close Percent 52-Wk 52-Wk Div Div Book P/E Last

Company Region 12/29/95 03/29/96 Change High Low Rate Yield Value Ratio 12 Mos.

Electric Utilities

AEP Company Inc.

Filings Against FERC's Pro Forma Tariffs

AS ONE MIGHT EXPECT, THE VARIATIONS REFLECT THE HISTORIC TENSION BETWEEN NATIVE LOAD AND WHOLESALE TRANSACTIONS.

CMS Generation Co., a unit of CMS Energy Corp., has begun operating the 35-Mw, waste-wood-fueled, independent Genesee Power Station near Flint, MI. CMS Generation will sell the electricity to Consumers Power Co. under a long-term contract. Half the plant is owned by CMS, half by Black & Veatch Development Corp. and Genesee Power Co.

Another unit of CMS Energy, CMS Gas and Electric Marketing, has signed an agreement with Marine Coal Sales Co. of Indianapolis, IN, to market electricity, coal, and natural gas in the east central United States.