Unbundling

GPU Energy said settlement negotiations with parties involved inthe company’s stranded cost and unbundling case will continue as aregulatory deadline passed last week. “We have notified the NewJersey Board of Public Utilities that although we have not reacheda settlement at this time, we will continue the negotiationprocess,” said Mike Filippone, director of rates for New Jersey.

The Georgia Senate approved House Bill 822 by a vote of 52-0last week, paving the way for a one time, statewide customerassignment process to occur before the next heating season. Havingalready passed the House of Representatives unanimously, theamendment only needs Gov. Roy Barnes’ signature before it becomeslaw.

Retail unbundling in the California natural gas market is”currently being undermined” by Dynegy Marketing and Trade’swithholding of firm transportation capacity on El Paso Natural Gas,the head of the California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) saidThursday. As a remedy, CPUC President Richard A. Bilas called onFERC to implement regulations prohibiting the “hoarding” ofpipeline capacity and to investigate allegations of anticompetitiveconduct, which he contends was prevalent in the Dynegy-El Pasocontract arrangement.

AGL Resources is capitalizing on the experience gained in theprecedent-setting unbundling of its Atlanta Gas Light subsidiary,organizing a separate partnership to offer all the services acompany will need to move into the competitive market.

While there’s much commercial and industrial customers likeabout gas unbundling, they still have complaints, according to arecent study. And while marketers are perceived to be moresensitive to customers’ wants and needs than LDCs, utilities arestill favored for gas supply by some.

Despite the advent of retail gas and electric competition instates such as California, Georgia, Ohio and Pennsylvania,UtiliCorp United officials do not regret their decision earlierthis year to shelve retail commodity marketing and disband theEnergyOne partnership with PECO Energy. The outlook for retailcompetition is still quite bleak, UtiliCorp Chairman Richard C.Green, Jr. said last week at a press briefing in Washington, D.C.The status of the retail market has not changed, and regulators andlegislators still appear headed in the wrong direction.

Only five of a possible 19 marketers are making deliveries toabout 16,000 out of 1.4 million customers of Atlanta Gas Light thismonth, but it’s a start in the LDC’s state-approved plan to workits way out of the regulated merchant business.

An additional 1.6 million customers in 41 Ohio counties could bechoosing alternative gas suppliers this winter, followed by morethan 2.8 million customers in 57 of Ohio’s 88 counties in November1999, if the Public Utilities Commission of Ohio (PUCO) accepts itsstaff’s recommendations. Based on good results in pilot programslast winter in metropolitan Toledo (Columbia Gas), Canton andMarietta (East Ohio Gas) and in greater Cincinnati (Cincinnati Gas& Electric), staff told the full commission the three pilotprograms should be expanded as soon as possible.

Spurred on by LDC unbundling and subsequent decontracting,interstate gas pipelines are bracing for a brave new world thatcould portend significant changes in the way capacity is priced andin the types and range of services that will be offered tocustomers in the years ahead, pipeline executives said last week.