Unanimously

Montana’s five-member, elected Public Service Commission Thursday voted unanimously to launch an investigation of past wholesale electricity and natural gas deals in its open-access energy market. Details of how the PSC will pursue possible market manipulation in the past will come in the next two weeks when a formal order is drafted, according to one of the PSC commissioners, Tom Schneider, in an interview with NGI.

The California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) last week unanimously adopted a framework under which the state’s three investor-owned utilities (IOUs) will plan for and obtain the energy resources and demand-side investments necessary to ensure their customers receive reliable service at low and stable prices.

The New Mexico Public Regulation Commission has unanimously approved a $22 million revenue increase for PNM Resources’ gas utility, with the business rate increase to take effect immediately. The utility serves about 450,000 residential and business natural gas customers in the state. The commission’s final order accepts a compromise agreement negotiated in December by the company, commission staff and the industrial customer group. All parties to the rate proceeding have indicated they would not appeal the order. The settlement provides for a $20 million increase in gas rates and a $2 million increase in other service fees and charges. The new rates offer the company the opportunity to earn a 10.25% return on equity in its gas utility operations. Assuming normal weather, the company estimates that two-thirds of the rate increase will be realized in 2004 earnings. Because of concerns regarding the impact of higher rates during the current winter heating season, the negotiated settlement postpones the start of the residential portion of the rate increase until April 2004, while business customers will see an immediate rate hike. The residential customers will account for about 82% of the total rate increase on an annualized basis, with the remaining 18% from business customers.

The New Mexico Public Regulation Commission on Tuesday unanimously approved a $22 million revenue increase for PNM Resources gas utility, with the business rate increase to take effect immediately. The utility serves about 450,000 residential and business natural gas customers in the state.

The Georgia Public Service Commission (GPSC) unanimously approved a stipulation last week to resolve issues with natural gas marketer Energy America LLC regarding improper disconnections of customers’ natural gas service.

The Georgia Public Service Commission unanimously approved a stipulation Tuesday to resolve issues with natural gas marketer Energy America LLC regarding improper disconnections of customers’ natural gas service (see Daily GPI, Jan. 6). The disconnections resulted from the company’s failure to properly credit payments from the Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program (LIHEAP) to at least 54 customers’ accounts. The terms of the stipulation require the company to pay $54,000 into the state administered LIHEAP fund and to pay a $125 credit to each customer who was wrongly disconnected. In addition, the company must also pay each customer $5 for each day they were disconnected. The total amount of these payments is $60,750. However, if the commission identifies additional Energy America customers who were disconnected in error, the stipulation requires the company to make an additional $1,000 payment to LIHEAP for each additional customer.

The California Energy Commission earlier this month unanimously adopted a new set of more stringent building standards for homes and commercial buildings, promising to shave the state’s peak demand by up to the equivalent of 150 to 180 MW after their first full year in use at the end of 2006. The new standards are to be effective October 2005.

California regulators Thursday unanimously approved an accounting approach for distributing nearly $500 million of the state’s more than $1 billion portion of the settlement earlier this year with El Paso Corp. The settlement followed years of litigation over whether El Paso manipulated the power and gas markets in the West (see NGI, March 24).

California regulators Thursday unanimously approved an accounting approach for distributing nearly $500 million of the state’s more than $1 billion portion of the settlement earlier this year with El Paso Corp. The settlement followed years of litigation over whether El Paso manipulated the power and gas markets in the West (see Daily GPI, March 24).