Elimination

With the approval of the Public Utilities Commission of Ohio (PUCO), Dominion East Ohio said last week that it is moving forward with the elimination of gas cost recovery (GCR) rates in favor of a pricing plan that sets consumer rates based on a more market-based methodology. As part of a pilot program — also known as Phase One of a two phase plan — approved by the PUCO in May, the new Standard Service Offer (SSO) natural gas rate is for customers who have not selected another supplier under Ohio’s Energy Choice program (see NGI, June 5; Sept. 11).

With the approval of the Public Utilities Commission of Ohio (PUCO), Dominion East Ohio said Wednesday it is moving forward with the elimination of gas cost recovery (GCR) rates in favor of a pricing plan that sets consumer rates based on a more market-based methodology. As part of a pilot program — also known as Phase One of a two phase plan — approved by the PUCO in May, the new Standard Service Offer (SSO) natural gas rate is for customers who have not selected another supplier under Ohio’s Energy Choice program (see Daily GPI, May 31; Aug. 31).

In one of what surely will be a long list of footnotes to the conclusion of the nation’s largest utility bankruptcy, PG&E Corp. announced late Monday that a creation of California’s energy crisis in late 2000, a “shareholder rights plan,” automatically expired with the emergence from Chapter 11 bankruptcy by the holding company’s utility, Pacific Gas and Electric Co.

FERC last Wednesday conditionally approved a proposal filed by ISO New England (ISO-NE) and New England transmission companies late last year to form a regional transmission organization (RTO). Among other things, the Commission directed ISO-NE and the transmission owners to conduct additional work on plans to eliminate interregional electric seams with bordering regions.

Ongoing efforts in the West to eliminate seams between various power markets shouldn’t delay the formation of regional transmission organizations (RTOs) in that part of the country, officials with various electric grid operators reassured FERC Commissioners last Wednesday.

Short-term mitigation measures implemented by FERC in U.S. power markets have resulted in the elimination of price signals in certain parts of the country and have set in motion the “ultimate death spiral” by mitigating below the price of entry, Julie Simon, vice president for policy at the Electric Power Supply Association (EPSA), told a power industry conference last Thursday.

The current pace of power plant construction could very well lead to the elimination of generation capacity shortages in practically every U.S. regional power market over the next one to three years, according to a new study recently completed by ICF Consulting.

The current pace of power plant construction could very well lead to the elimination of generation capacity shortages in practically every U.S. regional power market over the next one to three years, according to a new study recently completed by ICF Consulting.