Top Electricity and Natural Gas Executives To Address Tumultuous Changes in Deregulated Markets at Platts' 8th Annual Day of the Trader Conference
Dow Jones Interactive
November 19, 2001  
 
 
Pushing for public power / Backers say they'll have issue on next ballot
Dow Jones Interractive
November 19, 2001
 
 
PG&E CLEANING CONTAMINATED MARTINEZ SITE  - TWO FAMILIES LIVING ADJACENT TO THE SITE HAVE FILED CLAIMS AGAINST THE UTILITY, BLAMING POLLUTION FOR ILLNESSES AND DEATHS
Dow Jones Interactive
November 17, 2001
 
 
 
Reliant to slash rates 17 % when deregulation begins
Dow Jones Interactive
November 17, 2001
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Top Electricity and Natural Gas Executives To Address Tumultuous Changes in Deregulated Markets at Platts' 8th Annual Day of the Trader Conference

FERC Commissioner Nora Mead Brownell to Deliver Keynote 

Executives with some of the most dynamic companies in deregulated electricity and natural gas markets will address the 8th Annual Day of the Trader Conference, December 5-7 at Caesars Palace in Las Vegas, NV. 

The conference is sponsored by Platts, the energy information, research, consulting and market services division of The McGraw-Hill Companies (NYSE:MHP). 

Featured speakers include top officers from Duke Energy, Reliant Energy, Aquila, Williams Energy, Coral Energy, Calpine, Allegheny Energy Global Markets, PG&E, Southern California Gas, the New York Mercantile Exchange and others, along with the industry's top strategic analysts. 

The conference also includes a panel that will take an in-depth look at how federal regulators are rewriting the rules for the trading market and what that means for trading companies. The keynote address will be delivered by the Honorable Nora Mead Brownell, a commissioner with the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission. 

The conference is sponsored by the Platts family of electricity and natural gas market products including Power Markets Week, Inside FERC's Gas Market Report, Gas Daily, Megawatt Daily, Platts Energy Trader and Global Energy Business. 

For more information or to register, go to www.platts.com and hit the Day of the Trader banner. You can also call Custom Meetings International at 718-317-6737 or e-mail mailtocmi@aol.com. 

Platts is the world's largest and most authoritative provider of energy information and market services, with 17 offices worldwide. Products range from real-time and Internet-based news and price assessment services, to newsletters, market reports, databases, magazines, conferences, research services, geospatial tools and consulting. Platts offerings cover the oil, petrochemical, natural gas, electricity , nuclear power, coal, bandwidth and metals markets. Every day more than $10 billion of trading activity and term contract sales are based on Platts' price assessments. Additional information is available at www.platts.com and www.plattsmetals.com. 

Founded in 1888, The McGraw-Hill Companies is a global information services provider meeting worldwide needs in financial services, education and business-to-business information through leading brands such as Standard & Poor's, BusinessWeek and McGraw-Hill Education. The Corporation has more than 300 offices in 33 countries. Sales in 2000 were $4.3 billion. Additional information is available at www.mcgraw-hill.com <http://www.mcgraw-hill.com>.

 
 
 
 
Pushing for public power / Backers say they'll have issue on next ballot


Public power advocates in San Francisco will have to convince people like Tim Colen that their idea is a good one if they want to go back to the ballot next year and win. 

Colen, who lives in the West Portal area, voted against two measures on the Nov. 6 ballot that would have paved the way for a public power system in San Francisco and ended PG&E's monopoly in the local energy market. The company and other corporate interests spent more than $2 million to defeat the effort. 

Colen's vote reflected the sentiment throughout the city's conservative strongholds -- among them West Portal and other West of Twin Peaks neighborhoods -- and in the wealthier pockets of Pacific Heights and Sea Cliff. In those neighborhoods, Proposition F and Measure I lost almost 2 to 1. 

In the city's more liberal neighborhoods -- Haight-Ashbury, Bernal Heights, South of Market and Noe Valley -- the reverse was true. And in the Mission, support for public power was almost 3 to 1. 

"Those were the districts that were focused on because of limited resources," said Board of Supervisors President Tom Ammiano, a public power booster. "Once we engaged people, talked to them, they were very responsive. I think the same thing would have to happen in the other districts when we go forward again." 

For Colen, an environmental geologist and consultant, the proposals were poorly drafted, more intent to take a whack at the corporate giant PG&E than to make sure that electricity is delivered to city residents and businesses at a lower cost and more reliably -- as backers of the measures promised. 

"San Francisco can get into the energy business," said Colen. "But it should be incremental, with a sound policy, and with people in charge who are experts." 

In addition, he doesn't want an elected board running the operation, as both Measure I and Proposition F required, and he wants the city to explore working with PG&E instead of ousting the private utility competely. Then, Colen said, he may support public power. 

Proposition F called for replacing the city's existing water and power department with a new, expanded agency to deliver publicly owned electricity to consumers. It lost by 533 votes, or less than 1 percentage point. 

Measure I, the more far-reaching of the two, lost by 4,361 votes, or 3.5 percentage points. It would have set up a municipal utilities district in San Francisco and neighboring Brisbane. It made a target of PG&E but also had the power to take over the garbage, cable and phone operations. 

Despite the loss, supporters of municipal power expect to resurrect the idea. Ammiano and other backers are exploring how far the city can go to begin public power without voter approval. At the same time, they are considering a way to put the issue before voters again next year. 

Bob Lipman, a retiree who lives in Cow Hollow, voted against the two ballot proposals two weeks ago. His chief concern was the lack of documentation detailing the cost of creating a new public power system. "It was a blank check," he said. He also wanted more than a promise that rates would go down. 

Supervisor Tony Hall, the West of Twin Peaks representative who opposed the ballot measures, agreed that with more hard facts his constituents might buy into public power if the findings tilted in favor of sound fiscal policy. 

"People want to know how much this is going to cost," Hall said. 

Ammiano, the author of Proposition F, said he expected the city to conduct feasibility studies that outline costs, generation capabilities, financing options and the benefits and disadvantages of various public power scenarios. 

"While I believe we made a strong case for a municipal water and power agency, I think we can take the time between now and next November to provide further study on the issue, explain to voters exactly why public power will work in San Francisco and expand the coalition to include consumer interests, business owners and property owners backing the idea," Ammiano said. 

Another factor, he said, is voter turnout. 

"If we had 1 percent higher turnout we probably would have won," Ammiano said. 

For example, several neighborhoods -- among them the Western Addition, Civic Center and the South of Market -- had turnout lower than the citywide average, which was just less than 30 percent. 

Supervisor Chris Daly said the key to win was turning out liberal voters -- not putting efforts into wooing conservatives. 

"I truly believe I don't have to change people's minds," said Daly, who favors local control of the electrical system. "I represent the majority opinion. But the majority doesn't necessarily come out to vote. That's what we have to work on."

 

 

PG&E CLEANING CONTAMINATED MARTINEZ SITE  - TWO FAMILIES LIVING ADJACENT TO THE SITE HAVE FILED CLAIMS AGAINST THE UTILITY, BLAMING POLLUTION FOR ILLNESSES AND DEATHS

 

MARTINEZ -- PG&E crews have begun cleaning up the site of a former substation in Martinez, which had high levels of arsenic and lead in the soil. 

Crews will begin cleaning up two adjacent properties after the Thanksgiving weekend. 

The adjacent property owners and their families blame the contaminants for the illnesses and deaths of family members and filed a claim against Pacific Gas & Electric in bankruptcy court. 

The substation cleanup should be completed by mid-December at a cost of $225,000, said PG&E spokesman Jason Alderman. Cleaning up Tom Billecci's and Vince Aiello's properties will cost about $64,000. 

Once the substation site is free of contaminants, the utility will sell the property to a developer, who plans to build apartments. 

The cost of the cleanup is significantly more than the utility will make selling the property, Alderman said. 

"The reason it's expensive is that this is the gold standard of how an environmental cleanup should be done," he said. 

The utility operated a substation at the site from 1910 to 1990. The Billecci and Aiello families have been in discussions with PG&E about the cleanup for a year. They claim that the contaminants contributed to family illness including cancer, asthma and skin disorders. 

The utility will remove soil on both properties and test the ground to make sure it is free of high levels of lead and arsenic. Contra Costa Health Services Hazardous Materials Program will oversee the cleanup. 

PG&E will clean the area around a shed on Billecci's property, something it had not planned to do before. 

Billecci said he is pleased that PG&E agreed to increase the scope of the cleanup

 

Reliant to slash rates 17 % when deregulation begins

Residential customers who stick with Reliant Energy when electricity deregulation begins in January could see a drop in power rates of about 17 percent. 

That's according to figures filed Friday by Reliant with the Texas Public Utility Commission. 

Under the new so-called price-to-beat rate - which still needs PUC approval - someone using an average of 1,200 kilowatt-hours a month could save $257 over the course of a year, while someone using an average of 2,000 kilowatt-hours a month could save $426 annually. 

The big drop is being propelled significantly by lower natural gas prices. Consumers saw two electricity increases in the latter half of 2000 and another this year because natural gas prices had climbed. This year's increase, though, was rescinded as gas prices came down. 

The rate Reliant offers residential consumers and certain small businesses come Jan. 1 - when Texas opens its electricity market to competition - is known as the "price to beat." Larger consumers can negotiate contracts with providers. 

The price to beat will serve as a benchmark for other competitors, which in turn are expected to offer lower rates. 

Other incumbent electric companies, including Dallas-based TXU Energy, will charge their own price-to-beat rates in their service territories. 

The PUC wants the price to beat low enough so consumers benefit from deregulation, but high enough so competitors can offer lower rates but make enough profit to stay in the market. 

Consumer groups have said the PUC is paying too much attention to competitors' profits and not enough to ensuring consumers get the lowest prices. 

To set the price to beat, the PUC uses complex formulas: Costs are sorted into several categories, including a "base rate," as well as costs tied to the price of natural gas, which affects the price of electricity. 

Under the deregulation law, consumers automatically get a 6 percent cut in the base portion starting Jan. 1, which, depending on usage, can make up 60 percent of a consumer's costs. 

The PUC and Reliant have been trying to agree on the so-called fuel-factor portion of the price to beat. 

The figure Reliant filed Friday was to agreed to by the PUC staff and the company. The three-member commission still must give its approval, which it could do Tuesday or at a Dec. 3 meeting. 

The current rate for a residential Reliant customer who uses 14,400 kilowatt-hours of electricity in a year - or an average of 1,200 a month - is 10.42 cents per kilowatt-hour. 

Under the numbers Reliant filed Friday, the cost would be 8.64 cents per kilowatt-hour. That's a drop of 17 percent. 

Those per kilowatt-hour figures are calculated to take into account that customers use more electricity in the summer when prices are higher. Reliant charges different rates for summer and non- summer months and will keep doing so after deregulation begins. 

The per kilowatt-hour comparisons compiled for the PUC are annualized, average rates. All providers will break their electricity offers into similar rates so consumers will have an apples-to-apples way to compare them. 

Reliant and other existing companies are prohibited from cutting the base-rate portion of the price to beat for three years or until they lose 40 percent of their customers. The price to beat can be adjusted twice a year for fuel costs. 

Earlier this week, consumer groups said they were worried that an option being considered by the PUC, if adopted, could artificially raise the price to beat and cause residential consumers to pick up costs that should be borne by larger customers. 

That option, which involves fuel costs that utilities are still owed, isn't included in Reliant's filing. A PUC spokesman said one commissioner simply wanted more information about the idea, and it's unknown whether the PUC will ever take an up-or-down vote. 

Competitors of Reliant and other existing companies are obviously interested in what the price to beat will be. 

In a filing Thursday with the PUC, the New Power Co., which is offering residential service in Houston and elsewhere, said the price to beat will ultimately determine if deregulation succeeds in Texas. 

Because there was a sufficient difference between current prices and rates offered by competitors during a pilot test of deregulation, a relatively high number of consumers signed up for new providers during the program, New Power said. 

"New Power is optimistic that the Texas market will support vigorous competition, but, like everyone else, we will have to wait and see how the future unfolds," it said.