utilities

The California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) and the California Electricity Oversight Board (CEOB) last Tuesday asked FERC to reopen the record in a proceeding involving the agencies’ challenge to several power contracts entered into by the California Department of Water Resources (CDWR) and various power suppliers during the state’s 2000-2001 energy crisis.

Susan Kennedy was quickly cleared by the Senate Rules Committee for confirmation as the new commissioner at the California Public Utilities Commission. Statewide consumer, utility and environmental groups appeared to support the appointment of the former Democratic Party and governor’s adviser. Confirmation by the full Senate is expected later this month. In part of her questioning, Kennedy said she was unhappy with the level of the so-called exit fees assigned late last year by the CPUC for direct access customers in California. At their current levels, she said it would take 10 to 20 years for bundled utility customers to get their fair share from the customers buying their own power supplies from third-party providers.

The British Columbia Utilities Commission said Friday that it has approved BC Gas Utility’s application for an increase in the rates it charges for the natural gas commodity. The increase will add approximately 16% to the typical residential customer’s total gas bill, about 6% less than the wholesale cost the distributor believes it may have to pay over the next 12 months.

The British Columbia Utilities Commission said Friday that it has approved BC Gas Utility’s application for an increase in the rates it charges for the natural gas commodity. The increase will add approximately 16% to the typical residential customer’s total gas bill, about 6% less than the wholesale cost the distributor believes it may have to pay over the next 12 months. BC Gas said that the increase works out to an additional C$184 per year for a typical Lower Mainland home; C$167 per year for a typical home in the Interior and C$183 per year for a typical home in the Kootenays. The increase — which was requested earlier in the week (see Daily GPI, March 18) — will take effect April 1, 2003. The utility estimates the full impact of increased commodity prices would add almost 22% to the typical residential customer’s bill. Most of the company’s current gas contracts expire at the end of this month and it is in the market for supplies going forward. BC Gas serves 764,000 residential, commercial and industrial customers in more than 100 communities in British Columbia.

BC Gas Utility has applied to the British Columbia Utilities Commission for a rate increase that will add approximately 16% to the typical residential customer’s total gas bill, about 6% less than the wholesale cost the distributor believes it may have to pay over the next 12 months.

The market oversight division of the Public Utilities Commission of Texas(PUCTT) has launched an investigation into bid activity in the Electric Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT) markets late last month to determine whether any market participant exacerbated significant power price spikes seen at that time.

For utilities and end-users still shell-shocked from the sky-high spikes of Monday and Tuesday, it may have seemed like re-entering a nightmare they thought they had already awakened from. Dollar-plus price gains — often plus much more than a dollar — were back in vogue Friday, as traders shrugged off the normal demand slump that accompanies a weekend and focused instead on a screen advance of more than 60 cents and prospects that this week largely will repeat the cold-weather pattern of the previous one.

Milwaukee-based Wisconsin Energy Corp. (WEC) is relying on its core gas and electric utility divisions to pull it through, while the company continues to take its lumps in asset sales and its non-utility energy business.

In another indication that California’s new top regulator wants his own team, the California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) Thursday replaced its civil service executive director with an outsider who is a long-term consumer/environmental activist, Bill Ahern, a former state government manager who has been a senior policy analyst in the Consumers Union San Francisco office.