Once again the California Public Utilities Commission distinguished itself last Wednesday more for what it did not do rather than the actions it took during a regular business meeting in San Francisco. The highest profile example among the “inactions” concerned what to do about the effective date for the regulators’ Sept. 20, 2001 suspension of direct access retail electricity contracts, which could affect the fate of 10% to 12% of the loads of the state’s three private sector utilities.

The continued delay of the decision on the direct access effective date (July 1, 2001 vs. Sept. 20, 2001) — until the CPUC’s March 21 meeting — was particularly critical because Wednesday’s session was the last meeting for pro-market Commissioner Richard Bilas, who resigned effective Friday and was considered the third vote for making the effective date Sept. 20. A minority, including CPUC President Loretta Lynch, wants to push back the effective date to July last year to eliminate the bulk of the electricity load now covered under customer supply contracts among the state’s largest electricity users.

It is not clear how the CPUC’s newest commissioner, former energy executive and economist Michael Peevey, will vote, or if he will vote, on the issue at his first meeting, but based on his recent past as a direct-access advocate, it is assumed he would vote the same as Bilas would have for the September effective date (see related story this issue).

In addition to the inaction, several long-pending items were withdrawn, including Southern California Gas Co.’s proposal to change about 14 Bcf of cushion gas supplies in two of its underground storage fields to working gas as a means of providing more low-cost supplies for use in the state during critical periods. With the easing of gas prices and the crises of the first half of last year, the urgency of the proposal — and therefore, the CPUC’s interest in it — seemed to wane.

Similarly, the five-member Commission unanimously voted to reject an idea developed as an outgrowth of last winter’s power crisis, moving the three electric utilities to lower-voltage distribution systems as a conservation measure. The assigned commissioner, Carl Wood, a former industrial electrician for Southern California Edison Co., said the absence of any blackouts in the state, or the future prospect of them, the relatively small estimated savings (225 MW statewide) and the added risk to electric service all prompted the rejection by the CPUC.

The idea of so-called “conservation voltage regulation” for the state’s three private-sector electric utility distribution systems was proposed last June and won some support from the California Energy Commission and some scientists. Under the concept, the three utilities would have reduced the voltage delivered to homes and businesses from the present 120-volt levels to 117 volts.

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