• FEATURE STORY:  Centrica North American business up 68% in first six months

• Competition or cost-based pricing? Take your pick

• TXU backs off on price to beat but loses money

Competition or cost-based
pricing? Take your pick

A coalition of Connecticut consumer advocates and customers has called for an end of wholesale market pricing in the state because a competitive wholesale market doesn't exist.
     The groups include the state's attorney general, Office of Consumer Counsel, Connecticut Municipal Electric Energy Cooperative and Connecticut Industrial Energy Consumers.
     The coalition asked FERC to force reliability-must-run (RMR) generators to apply to ISO New England for cost-of-service pricing.

TXU backs off on price to
beat but loses money

TXU has decided to delay its request for an adjusted price to beat following PUC debate.
     The IOU intends to notify formally the commission by letter it will hold off until at least Oct 13 on its adjustment request to see whether natural gas prices fall.
     The PUC had considered suspending all rate increase requests to see what happens to fuel prices in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina.
     The commission feared setting rates based on bubble prices.

Residential shopping for
power hits new Ohio high

But is it doomed?

FirstEnergy has asked the Ohio PUC to approve a settlement agreement reached with the mayors of Akron and Cleveland along with the Industrial Energy Users-Ohio and the Ohio Energy Group.
     The mayor of Parma has agreed but needs his city council's OK to allow him to sign the deal.
     The settlement proposes a rate certainty plan (RCP) that would mitigate fuel-cost rate adders FirstEnergy has asked for on top of its rate stabilization plan (RSP) that kicks in next year.
     Under the RCP, FirstEnergy would cut the regulatory transition charge it's still collecting from customers by the amount it wants to collect for higher fuel costs.

Market-friendly Unitil plan advances
in New Hampshire

The New Hampshire PUC OKd Unitil's market-friendly plan for default service after its transitional service ends in April of next year.
     The plan, based on a settlement agreement with stakeholders, exposes the largest customers the most to market prices.
     Default supply for residential customers would be bought via contracts of various lengths that would provide stability possibly at a higher cost.
     Residential customers have the fewest choices of competitive suppliers, including fixed-rate offers, the PUC noted, so need protection from price volatility offered by "laddered" contracts.

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