News Digest
March 1,
2001
January RTO
Filings. On Jan. 16, the handful of existing regional independent
system operators (but not ERCOT), filed plans on how they would conform
to rules set out for regional transmission organizations (RTOs) in FERC
Order 2000.
- New England. Joined
with six transmission owners (Bangor Hydro-Electric, Central Maine Power,
National Grid USA, Northeast Utilities, United Illuminating, and Vermont
Electric Power) to propose a "binary" RTO, with an independent transmission
company (Northeast ITC) operating within the RTO umbrella. FERC Docket
No. RT01-86-000, filed Jan. 16, 2001.
- New York. The current
ISO members (Con Ed, Central Hudson Gas & Electric, Niagara Mohawk,
Orange & Rockland, NYSEG, and Rochester Gas & Electric) joined to propose
an RTO, and touted their new protocols for coordinating transmission
planning and expansion. FERC Docket No. RT01- 95-000, filed Jan.
16, 2001.
- Midwest. Claimed
its RTO plan already conformed with the FERC's minimum set of RTO characteristics
and functions. Alliant Energy led a group of nine utilities (plus American
Transmission Co.) that filed separately to support MISO and ask the
FERC to OK a revised rate structure for MISO, including a "revenues
lost approach" similar to that already approved for the Alliance group.
FERC Docket Nos. RT01-87-000 (MISO), RT01-96-000 (Alliant group),
RT01-91- 000 (ATC), filed Jan. 16, 2001.
- Alliance. Claiming
nine members (Ameren, American Electric Power, Consumers Energy, Exelon,
FirstEnergy, Illinois Power, Dayton Power & Light, Detroit Edison, and
Virginia Electric & Power), Alliance said it would be the largest proposed
RTO, covering 174,500 square miles and serving 39.8 million people in
11 states, with a peak load of 108 gigawatts (115 gigawatts generating
capacity). With new members in Illinois, it claimed it would no longer
disrupt markets as a "tollgate," blocking access by Midwest power producers
seeking to sell into PJM. FERC Docket No. RT01-88, filed Jan. 16, 2001.
A week later, the FERC approved the proposed scope and configuration
of the Alliance group on assurances of better "seams" management, but
with commissioner Massey dissenting. Docket No. ER99-3144-003 et
al., 94 FERC ¶61,070, Jan. 24, 2001.
- California. In a
six-page letter that read like an apology, the ISO said it was still
studying market redesign and afterwards would identify the steps needed
to comply with RTO rules, but also was working to form a broader "Western
RTO." California's three major investor-owned utilities filed separate
RTO notices, each criticizing the ISO and questioning whether it could
qualify as an RTO, given current market dysfunction. FERC Docket
No. RT01-85-000 (ISO), RT01-82-000 (SDG&E), RT01-83-000 (PG&E), RT01-92-000
(So. Cal. Edison), filed Jan. 16, 2001. -B.W.R.
Regional Coordination.
On Jan. 16, the boards of directors of ISO New England and the New
York ISO announced approval of a joint resolution establishing a joint
task force on inter-control area market coordination to reduce barrier
between the two markets.
California
Postage-Stamp Pricing. Various municipal utilities and irrigation
districts filed protests against the California ISO's proposed Tariff
Amendment 34, filed late last year as the next step for the ISO in revamping
its transmission rates to accommodate municipal electric utilities and
members not owning transmission facilities, and to comply with a deadline
imposed by state law.
The plan will
phase-out license-plate pricing (based on utility-specific embedded costs)
for high-voltage transmission service over 10 years, and then institute
a flat, grid-wide, postage-stamp rate. Among other objections, the publicly
owned utilities question how the new tariff will mesh with ISO proposals
for allocation of firm transmission rights (FTRs). FERC Docket No.
ER01-819-000, protests filed Jan. 19, 2001. -B.W.R.
Michigan Divestiture.
The FERC allowed CMS Energy Co. and its operating subsidiary, Consumers
Energy, to transfer transmission assets to a newly formed company, Michigan
Transmission Co., to carry out possible plans to turn over the assets
to the proposed Alliance RTO, or to exit the transmission business entirely.
Docket Nos. EC01-4-000, ER01-414-000, Jan. 10, 2001 (F.E.R.C.).
-L.A.B.
GridFlorida
Governance. The FERC issued preliminary findings on whether GridFlorida's
governance structure will satisfy requirements for regional transmission
organizations (RTOs), with respect to (1) selection of the board of directors,
(2) criteria for qualification of directors and officers, and (3) restrictions
on financial holdings and independence of directors and employees. Docket
No. RT01-67-000, 94 FERC ¶61,020, Jan. 10, 2001. - L.A.B.
Return on Equity.
The Texas PUC set return on equity at 11.25 percent for electric transmission
and distribution utilities, once retail choice begins Jan. 1, 2002. It
also issued revised draft rules governing rates, terms and conditions
of wholesale and retail transmission service, to mesh with a new market
design for the ERCOT ISO. Project No. 22344 (ROE), Dec. 13, 2000, and
Project No. 23157 (draft rules), Jan. 5, 2001 (Tex.P.U.C.). -L.A.B.
State PUCs
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Price Caps for Rate
Contracts. Citing extreme power price volatility in the Pacific
Northwest, the Washington state commission ruled that retail electric
rates billed by Puget Sound Energy (PSE) under Tariff Schedule 48,
and in private contracts with various large customers, including
Boeing, Georgia-Pacific, and Air Products and Chemicals Inc., were
unjust and unreasonable, to the extent they were pegged to wholesale
price indices reflecting prices at the Mid-Columbia hub, and to
the extent that such customers did not have effective rights to
achieve price stability under optional pricing guarantees and rate
collars offered in the contracts, but which the commission cited
as "inadequate."
The commission ordered
further proceedings to set a "temporary soft cap," but declined
to set a specific price target. Instead, it asked its staff to study
and propose at least one optional solution that would include a
soft cap at $150/MWh, and suggested a billing floor as well to protect
PSE from risk. Docket No. UE-001952, Sixth Supplemental Order,
Jan. 22, 2001 (Wash.U.T.C.).-B.W.R.
Shopping Credits.
New York OK'd a market-based shopping credit (back out credit for
generation supply) for New York State Elec. & Gas, with an added
credit of $0.004 per kilowatt-hour (kWh) tacked on the top to reflect
retail marketing costs avoided by the utility for residential customers
who switch to competitive suppliers. It decided against imposing
any ceiling or floor as inconsistent with the market-based concept.
NYSEG's current credit had been 3.56 cents per kWh, net of gross
receipts taxes. Case 96-E-0891, Jan. 26, 2001 (N.Y.P.S.C.).
-B.W.R.
Capacity Contract
Buyouts. Calling the deal a "serious gamble" that could backfire
against consumers, Connecticut regulators rejected a proposed buyout
of 345 MWs of capacity rights owned by Connecticut Light & Power
under long-term purchased power contracts with a private power producer
at prices supposedly above market, even though the buyer, Constellation
Power Source, was selected as the highest bidder among some 15 bidders
in a private auction conducted by J.P. Morgan.
The sale was held to
mitigate CL&P's liability for stranded costs-CL&P would tender a
"support payment" to Constellation for taking the contracts off
its hands. But the commission ruled the deal a bad bargain for ratepayers,
who would fail to break even if power prices averaged above $30/MWh
over the life of the contracts, and because CL&P would assume the
risk to pay for the buyout even if the generator defaulted.
"Fixing stranded costs
... is not necessarily a benefit to customers," said the commission.
"Stranded costs become less volatile, but ... if the average market
price is above three cents per kWh over the thirty-year period,
ratepayers will suffer. ... On the other hand, if the contracts
are not transferred ... ratepayers will receive the actual market
value of power." Docket No. 98-10-08RE04, Jan. 24, 2001 (Conn.D.P.U.C.).-
B.W.R.
Green Power Labeling.
Texas proposed green power labeling standards for identifying generation
supply by fuel mix (coal and lignite, natural gas, nuclear, renewables,
or "other") and quantity and type of emissions (NOx,
SO2, CO2, particulates, and spent nuclear
fuel).
The proposed rules also
create a "certificate of generation" as a tradeable instrument issued
by power producers that specifies fuel and environmental attributes
of power production from a specific generating facility during a
particular time period. The PUC would appoint a program administrator
to set up a registry of such certificates and procedures for trading
certificates.
In a briefing paper explaining
how the rule would work, the PUC listed some of the assumptions
standing behind its certificates program:
- "Green" electricity
products will sell at a premium.
- Electricity generated
from Texas natural gas is "green."
- "Bragging rights"
to natural gas generation will have market value.
- The "green premium"
associated with natural gas generation can create a stream of
economic benefits.
- Retail electric providers
that proactively prove they are "greener" than average simultaneously
prove that their non-proactive competitors are "browner" than
average. Project No. 22816, Jan. 23, 2001. -B.W.R.
Rate Freeze Avoidance.
With two commissioners issuing lengthy dissenting opinions, North
Carolina allowed Carolina Power & Light to defer costs incurred
to purchase SO2 emissions allowances until 2005-that
being the end of a rate freeze accepted earlier by CP&L as a condition
of its merger with North Carolina Natural Gas.
Dissenters Jo Anne Sanford
and Sam J.Ervin IV decried the attempt to circumvent the freeze
as without cause. Docket No. E-2, SUB 769, Jan. 18, 2001 (N.C.U.C.).-B.W.R.
Price-Cap Regulation.
In a victory for the utility on remand from the state supreme
court, Massachusetts agreed to trim back the maximum penalty for
poor service quality under a performance-based rate (PBR) plan OK'd
earlier for Boston Gas, and to reduce the productivity offset against
inflation from 1.5 percent to 1.0 percent.
The commission affirmed
a half-percent "consumer dividend" it had included in its productivity
offset to capture expected future productivity gains of the PBR
plan. But it trimmed back its original "accumulated inefficiencies
factor" from 1.0 percent to 0.5 percent, on orders from the court.
It had designed the AEF
to track historic inefficiencies in regulated versus competitive
firms, mirrored on a similar adjustment it imposed several years
earlier in a telephone price cap plan for NYNEX, but on remand the
commission acknowledged that using the telecommunications industry
as a proxy for gas industry firms had likely overstated any gas
industry inefficiencies. D.T.E. 96-50- D, Jan. 16, 2001 (Mass.D.T.E.).
-B.W.R.
Competitive Metering.
After taking comments on draft practices and procedures for competitive
electric metering services, New York told the state's electric utilities
to cancel and reshape their proposed tariffs for competitive metering.
Meter providers and meter
data management agents can offer services independent of commodity
sales, but electricity customers cannot act as their own providers
(though large-volume customers with time-of-use pricing can continue
to own their interval meters). A more detailed order was to follow.
Cases 00-E-0165, 94-E-0952, Jan. 31, 2001 (N.Y.P.S.C.). -B.W.R.
Other January Orders.
- Arizona. Administrative
Law Judge Jane Rodda files recommended amendments to rules governing
the state's renewable portfolio standard, and proposing a "Solar
Electric Fund" to collect and allocate deficiency penalties and
fund solar energy projects. Docket No. RE-00000C-00-0377, Jan.
17, 2001.
- Arkansas.
Opens inquiry on whether to require natural gas utilities to practice
price hedging or offer fixed price schedules to customers. Docket
No. 01-023-NOI, Order No. 1, Jan. 31, 2001.
- Florida. Approves
rule to ensure funding for nuclear plant decommissioning, and
require utilities to file studies every five years. Docket
No. 000543-EI, Order No. PSC-01-0096-FOF-EI, Jan. 11, 2001.
- Florida. Extends
time period and eligibility for experimental plan for real-time
pricing by Florida Power & Light Co. Docket No. 000902-EI,
Order No. PSC-01-0067-TRF-EI, Jan. 9, 2001.
- Maine. Finalizes
rule to require electric customers to pay opt-out fee (even in
winter) if they switch from competitive suppliers to standard
offer utility service. Docket No.2000-904, Jan. 24, 2001.
- Massachusetts.
Forces natural gas utilities to cut back on their proposed increases
in gas cost adjustment factors, to avoid rate shock, but acknowledges
resulting deferral of costs as an undesirable byproduct of the
policy. D.T.E. 01-09, Jan. 31, 2001.
- Michigan.
Tells state's three largest electric utilities to file updated
plans for generation and transmission capacity for summer season,
fearing fallout from "California situation" and "changes in the
wholesale market for electricity in the Midwest." No. U-12702,
Jan. 23, 2001.
- New York.
Extends system benefits charge for public purpose programs through
June 2006, and sets assessments based on utility-specific share
of statewide 1999 electric operating revenues, producing utility
charges ranging from 1.11 to 2.07 mills/kWh, so as to raise $150
million per year statewide. Case 94-E-0952, Jan. 26, 2001.
- Texas. Adopts
pre-certification standards for distributed generation, allowing
PUC-approved testing laboratories to designate specific models
of small-scale generating facilities as safe to interconnect to
the state's power grid. Jan. 29, 2001.
- Wisconsin. Sets
amounts utilities must contribute to public benefits fund to support
programs aiding conservation, low-income assistance, renewable
energy, and energy efficiency. No. 05-BU- 100, Jan. 4, 2001.
-B.W.R.
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Florida Merchant
Plants. Using a clever technique to overcome Florida's supposed hostile
stance against merchant power plants, Calpine succeeded in winning certification
for its 529-MW, gas-fired combined-cycle Osprey plant by proposing its
out-of-rate-base project as a joint venture with Seminole Electric Co-op.,
which would receive plant capacity through a wholesale contract.
Calpine also avoided
the state rule that requires investor-owned utilities who build power
plants to solicit bids for supply-side alternatives. "We do not reach
the question of whether Calpine, as a wholesale contract plant, is exempt
from the bidding rule. [Instead] we base our decision ... on the allegation
that Seminole is a cooperative utility that has contracted to purchase
the output. ... Since the bidding rule was adopted we have never required
cooperative or municipal utilities to comply with its requirements." Docket
No. 001748-EC, Order No. PSC-01-0248-PCO-EC, Jan. 29, 2001 (Fla.P.S.C.).
-B.W.R.
Meanwhile, the
City of New Smyrna Beach, Florida, petitioned the U.S. Supreme Court to
review an April 2000 ruling by the Florida Supreme Court that effectively
banned construction of merchant power plants in that state, by finding
that state law required plants to serve retail, not wholesale load, in
order to win a certificate of need. -L.A.B.
Millstone Nuclear
Sale. Connecticut OK'd the sale of Millstone nuclear units 1 (closed),
2 and 3 to the Dominion subsidiary Dominion Nuclear Connecticut, Inc.
for $1 million, $443.4 million ($507/kW), and $853.3 million ($791/kW),
respectively.
It accepted Dominion's
proposal to delay decommissioning of unit 1 until 2050 (to coincide with
units 2 and 3), and rejected arguments by consumer advocates that decommissioning
trust funds were overfunded, thus avoiding any ruling on the proposed
legal arguments that ratepayers were entitled to the excess funds. Docket
No. 99-09-12RE01, Jan. 24, 2001 (Conn.D.P.U.C.) -B.W.R.
Fossil Plant
Auctions. The California PUC denied authority to Southern California
Edison Co. to auction off to AES Corp its 56 percent share in the 1580-MW,
coal-fired Mohave Generating Station located in Nevada, even though AES
would have paid about five times the estimated net book value.
According to the
PUC, the sale would have placed "dependable capacity" generating at 3.5
cents per kWh outside commission control. "Changed circumstances require
a rethinking past policies," added the PUC. Application 99-10-023,
Jan. 18, 2001 (Cal.P.U.C.).
Studies
and Reports
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Texas Stranded Costs.
On Jan. 11, the Texas PUC released its report to the state legislature
on competition in electric markets, offering the first updated estimate
of stranded costs for Texas electric utilities since 1998, and in
fact suggesting that such costs have now fallen below zero, indicating
that plant market value for all state's utilities now exceeds book
value.
The stranded cost update
is based not on a PUC finding, but only on so-called ECOM estimates
("Excess Costs Over Market") compiled from UCOS cases ("Unbundled
Cost of Service"), filed by the utilities according to assumptions
mandated by the PUC, and updated to incorporate revised natural
gas price forecasts.
As initially filed, the
UCOS petitions identified some $3 billion in stranded costs for
Texas utilities, including $1.354 billion for TXU, and $815 million
for Reliant. As updated, however, the state total is a negative
$742 million, including a negative $1.454 billion for TXU.
Otherwise, the report
cites new state-mandated air emission standards as problematic.
"The new NOx rules will present challenges in some non-attainment
areas," the report states, "particularly the Dallas-Fort Worth area."
And it adds that "continued reliability of service in the DFW area
is a concern, because of the import constraints into the area."
The report also recommends
an amendment to the state's Gas Utilities Regulatory Act so that
gas utility subsidiaries of combined electric and gas conglomerates
don't have an advantage (through combined electric and gas "branding")
versus unaffiliated gas suppliers. Scope of Competition in Electric
Markets in Texas, January 2001, at www.puc.state.tx.us.-B.W.R.
California Plant Outages.
The Office of General Counsel and the Office of Markets, Tariffs,
and Rates at the FERC reported that generating outages in California
at plants owned by Dynegy, NRG, and Reliant appeared to stem from
increased demand and age of the units (boiler tube and seal leaks,
turbine blade wear, and valve and pump motor failures, etc.), and
did not contribute to power price movements in California.
"Rather," said the FERC
staffers, "it appears that these companies accelerated maintenance
and incurred additional expense to accommodate the ISO's operating
needs. They also reduced outages and deferred maintenance in December
and preserved revenue opportunities by doing so."
The report emphasized
that it was not designed to determine whether the companies were
withholding capacity from the market by refusing to bid or schedule
plant capacity, or by submitting overambitious bids. Report on
Plant Outages in the State of California, Feb. 1, 2001 (F.E.R.C.).
-B.W.R.
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Local Facility
Access. The U.S. Supreme Court agreed to review the so-called "TELRIC"
method (Total Element Long-Run Incremental Cost) adopted by the Federal
Communications Commission to estimate reproduction cost and thus set prices
for competitive carriers that lease essential local exchange facilities
from incumbent local telephone monopolies.
Under this method,
the FCC has argued that lease prices should not reflect all historic embedded
costs, but only those forward-looking costs (a smaller figure) that an
incumbent carrier would likely incur to construct an efficient local exchange
network using current technology. FCC v. Iowa Utils. Bd., No. 00-587,
Jan. 22, 2001 (U.S.). -B.W.R.
Utility Pole
Attachments. The U.S. Supreme Court has also agreed to review whether
federal statutes and rules-set by the FCC-governing compensation for attachments
to utility poles should apply to attachments for wireless communications
or for cable TV systems used simultaneously to provide high-speed Internet
access. FCC v. Gulf Power Co., No. 00-843, Jan. 22, 2001 (U.S.).
-B.W.R.
Stranded Costs.
The New Hampshire Supreme Court denied an appeal by two consumer advocacy
groups challenging recovery of stranded costs by Public Service Co. of
New Hampshire as an unconstitutional taking of property.
It acknowledged
that past investments in generation plants may no longer be "used and
useful," but said the "used and useful doctrine" was not a constitutional
requirement in rate-making policy. Appeal of Campaign for Ratepayers
Rights, Nos. 00-637, 00-638, Jan. 16, 2001 (N.H.Sup.Ct.).-L.A.B.
Water Utility
Financing. In a case involving a water utility lease transaction reported
to be the first of its kind in the U.S., the Massachusetts Supreme Court
upheld a state PUC order that had set water utility return on equity at
14 percent for new plant construction and that OK'd a financing arrangement
whereby the utility would lease a water treatment plant from a sister
corporation over a 40-year term, but with lease payments treated by the
water utility as annual operating expenses and calculated to allow the
affiliate (lessor) to recover plant costs over a period shorter than the
plant's projected useful life. Town of Hingham v. Mass. DTE, No. SJC08201,
433 Mass.198, Jan 16, 2001 (Mass.). -P.C.
Bangor + Emera. The
FERC OK'd the $206 million merger of Bangor Hydro-Electric Co. and Emera
Inc., parent company of Nova Scotia Power Inc., and the owner of a 12.5
percent interest in the Maritimes & Northeast Pipeline. Docket No.
EC01-13-000, Jan. 24, 2001 (F.E.R.C.).
The Maine PUC had OK'd the
deal a month earlier, on the condition that consumers would not pay higher
rates to recover the acquisition premium. Docket No. 2000-663, Dec.
18, 2000 (Maine P.U.C.). -L.A.B.
Northeast + ConEd. The
New Hampshire PUC denied a request to conduct a full antitrust analysis
on rehearing of its Dec. 6 order on merger of Northeast Utilities and
Con Ed, but in the process explained that it did not OK the deal in that
prior order, but only imposed conditions (rate relief for ratepayers)
in case the merger should go forward. DE 00-009, Order No. 23,621,
Jan. 21, 2001. -B.W.R.
California PX. On Jan.
19, a week after it claimed that its block forwards market saved traders
$1.2 billion in power costs, the California Power Exchange said it would
shut down by April and shift existing power contracts to other exchanges,
such the New York Mercantile Exchange and Automated Power Exchange.
Then, several days later, as
if to rub salt in the wound, the FERC ruled that the PX had violated its
final order on California market reform by failing to make sure that generators
bidding into the PX at a price higher than the FERC's $150/MWh "break
point" would receive only the amount of their bid, and that such bids
would not set the market-clearing price. Docket No. EL00-98-007, 94
FERC ¶61,085, Jan. 29, 2001.
On Jan. 25, PX CEO George Sladoje
had written a personal letter to FERC Chairman Curt Hébert, describing
how the PX could not easily modify its software to impose the required
change. The PX Board of Governors then voted to suspend its day-of- and
day-ahead markets. January 31 marked the last day of trading.-B.W.R.
California Power Procurement.
On Feb. 1, California Gov. Gray Davis signed into law Assembly Bill 1-X,
authorizing the state's Department of Water Resources to assess the state's
need for power, on consulting with the state PUC and public and private
electric utilities, and then to sign contracts (including options or forwards)
to purchase electricity for resale to utilities-or even directly to retail
customers.-B.W.R.
Mergers & Acquisitions
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ConEd + Northeast.
The New Hampshire PUC voted 2-1 to allow Consolidated Edison Inc.
of New York to take over Northeast Utilities (owner of Connecticut
Light & Power, Yankee Gas, and Public Service Co. of New Hampshire),
after receiving assurances that ConEd would not recover the $1.5
billion acquisition premium through higher rates charged by PSNH,
since the state legislature earlier had barred any such rate hike
as a quid pro quo for approving the utility's securitization of
stranded costs. DE 00-009, Order No. 23,594, Dec. 8, 2000 (N.H.P.U.C.).-L.A.B.
UtiliCorp ÷Empire.
On Jan. 3 UtiliCorp said it would cancel plans to merge with
Empire Electric Co. Several weeks earlier Arkansas regulators had
rejected the deal, while the Missouri PSC OK'd the merger but rejected
a key component of UtiliCorp's regulatory plan—a five-year
rate freeze. Oklahoma said it OK'd the deal only because no party
objected, but it reserved the right to scrutinize the regulatory
plan in future rate cases. See Docket No. 00-021-U, Order No.
6, Dec. 4, 2000 (Ark.P.S.C). Case No. EM-2000-369 (Empire), Dec.
28, 2000 (Mo.P.S.C.); Cause No. PUD 200000056, Dec. 12, 2000 (Okla.C.C.).-B.W.R.
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DOE Initiative. The
U.S. Federal Trade Commission filed comments criticizing tentative plans
at the Department of Energy to give mandatory status to electric reliability
rules promulgated by the North American Electric Reliability Council (NERC),
suggesting that NERC was becoming irrelevant.
The FTC advised the DOE to
broaden its reliability proposal to include competitive institutions,
and suggested that regional transmission organizations may subsume NERC
functions or make the DOE inquiry redundant.
"To the extent that RTOs are
implemented in all areas of the country ... the need for a separate reliability
organization with mandatory rules may be greatly reduced or eliminated."-B.W.R.
Gas Pipelines
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Capacity Into California.
With a dissenting opinion from chairman Curt Hébert, the
FERC affirmed a prior order requiring El Paso Natural Gas and its
marketing subsidiary El Paso Merchant to provide confidential information
under a protective order to interveners in the complaint by the
California PUC that El Paso monopolized pipeline capacity by selling
rights to its own affiliate. Hébert questioned why the FERC
should require the pipeline company to pass along market data to
interveners not directly involved in the dispute: "The mere pendency
of a filed complaint ... should not in itself provide the basis
for widespread distribution of information purported to be commercially
sensitive." Docket No. RP00-241-000, 94 FERC ¶61,021, Jan.
10, 2001.-B.W.R.
Benchmark Gas Price.
The National Association of Gas Consumers (municipal gas systems)
asked the FERC to set nationwide benchmark price for natural gas
and to open an investigation of allegedly excessive gas prices.
FERC Docket No. RP01-223-000, filed Feb. 1, 2001. -B.W.R.
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Two of the world's largest
power grids, PJM and RTE, the French transmission system
operator, signed an agreement to share technical knowledge and information
to help address mutual goals of power systems and energy market operations.
"RTE has 50 years of experience in operating the largest control area
in the world and PJM is one of the most successful ISOs, operating different
kinds of markets in a deregulated environment," said RTE director Andre
Merlin. "We will learn from each other; it is a win-win agreement."
WPS Resources Corp.
has selected LineSoft Corp.'s LD-Pro line design solution and LD-Track
work order tracking and analysis solution. The multi-million dollar contract
includes software, training, integration, and implementation services.
LD-Pro automates the design of overhead and underground transmission and
distribution lines, from the development and application of design criteria,
through detailed analysis, generation documentation, drawings, maps, specifications,
cost estimates, and material lists.
On Jan. 18, the U.S. Dept.
of Energy issued new energy efficiency appliance standards for commercial
heating and cooling equipment, residential clothes washers, water heaters,
and central air conditioners and heat pumps. "The rule takes a very balanced
approach to energy savings, consumer preference, and manufacturer impact,"
said Joseph M. McGuire, President of the Association of Home Appliance
Manufacturers. See, 66 Fed.Reg. 7169 (Jan. 22, 2001).
PECO Energy has signed
an agreement with Planalytics Inc. to access Weathernomics Gas
Buyer, a financial risk management tool for buyers and sellers of natural
gas. The Web-delivered tool suggests specific buying actions designed
to reduce risks and take advantage of opportunities presented by weather-driven
changes in gas prices for up to one year into the future.
ESRI's software has
been selected by Rochester Gas & Electric Corp. as the GIS component in
RG&E's implementation of Convergent Group's Digital Utility Business Solution.
The three-year project began in September, with completion of the first
implementation phase scheduled for the first quarter of this year. Pantellos,
an independent online marketplace for the utility and energy services
industries, and WorldCrest, a provider of procurement solutions for indirect
goods and services, have entered into a partnership that will expand and
strengthen the offerings of both companies. The partnership gives each
company access to complementary new areas, enhancing the Pantellos marketplace
while expanding WorldCrest's customer base.-C.J.L.
News Digest was compiled
by Bruce W. Radford, editor-in-chief, except as otherwise noted. For more
frequent updates, see www.pur.com.
Articles found on this page are available to Internet subscribers only. For more information about obtaining a username and password, please call our Customer Service Department at 1-800-368-5001.
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Public
Utilities Fortnightly & Spark
