By William Opalka
Electricity retailers in New York on Friday asked for rehearing of an order that would overhaul retail customer choice in the state.
The Impacted ESCO Coalition and the National Energy Marketers Association separately asked for a rehearing of the New York Public Service Commission’s Feb. 23 order that mandated customer savings under most contracts (98-M-1343).
The order mandates that customers be guaranteed an electric rate lower than what their host utility offers, with the exception of “green” offerings that must include a minimum of 30% renewable energy. The commission said the order was intended to combat deceptive practices and boost consumer confidence. (See Zibelman: Rules Meant to Enable Markets.)
The retailers say the reforms were ill-considered and hastily enacted. “Contrary to well established commission policy and practice in support of the development of competitive retail markets, and without notice or meaningful opportunity to be heard, the February order adopted requirements for ESCO [energy service company] service to mass market customers, which would effectively shut down the market for the majority of ESCOs and their customers,” the NEMA wrote.
The PSC had required ESCOs begin compliance within 10 days, or March 3. However, a state court stayed the order, scheduling a show-cause hearing for April 14. (See Court Delays New York ‘Guaranteed Savings’ Rules.)
Among the complaints by the ESCOs is that the rules were enacted without adequate notice under the State Administrative Procedures Act and that the price guarantee is improper rate-setting by the PSC.
The NEMA also said the order amounts to an illegal taking of its members’ accounts. “All of the ESCOs that cannot comply with the order will be forced to give their hard-won customers, which the ESCOs incurred significant costs to acquire, to the competing monopoly utility. The utilities will unfairly acquire these ESCO customers for free,” it wrote.
“The improperly noticed rules represent a sweeping set of changes that threaten to destroy hundreds of businesses and affect millions of New York residents,” wrote attorneys for the IEC, which describes itself as representing “small to medium” ESCOs, many of whom who operate primarily in New York.
The 371-page initial decision by Judge Steven Sterner lowered the base and ceiling ROEs for the New England Transmission Owners to 9.59 and 10.42% respectively for December 2012 to March 2014 and set the range at 10.9 to 12.19% for July 2014 through October 2015 (
The story of the cyberattack — the first publicly acknowledged assault to cause power outages — was spelled out in riveting detail in a 
The employees enabled macros in the files that allowed the installation of BlackEnergy 3 malware on the companies’ systems, providing access to command and control Internet Protocol addresses.
The report concludes with a number of recommendations, including eliminating unnecessary VPN pathways and developing “cyber blackstart” capabilities. But it warns that “it is likely that the adversary will modify attack approaches in follow‐on campaigns and these mitigation strategies may not be sufficient.”
Transmission projects expected to be in service by 2020 are adequate to leave the boundaries of the four zones intact for the capacity commitment period of 2020/21, ISO-NE Director of Transmission Services and Strategies Al McBride told the Planning Advisory Committee last Tuesday. The zones are also unaffected by resource retirements and additions already accounted for.
Among the report’s highlights: More than 4,200 MW of the region’s conventional nuclear, coal- and oil-fired generating capacity has retired recently or is scheduled to retire soon; about a third of the 13,000 MW of proposed generation projects are wind resources; and pipeline constraints and few delivery points for LNG will continue to pose challenges for fuel supply.
If Dominion Energy’s three-reactor Millstone Power Station were to close, more than 1,000 jobs would be lost and carbon emissions in New England would increase by 27%, officials told a legislative panel.
Commonwealth Edison will begin using data collected by smart meters to calculate greenhouse-gas reductions that can be linked to initiatives to reduce peak demand.
State regulators on March 21 agreed to postpone until this week whether to reconsider their rejection of international investors’ $4.9 billion bid for Cleco. The Public Service Commission is considering whether to change last month’s order that nixed the acquisition of the utility.
State officials, concerned about the possibility of leaks from pipelines that run under Lake Michigan, have asked Enbridge to provide specific condition information on Line 5, a pair of pipelines that cross the Straits of Mackinac.
A state district judge has struck down a water-discharge permit for a southeastern coal mine, saying officials failed to fully consider the effects of pollutants on several nearby creeks.
After 61 years of providing electricity to the Tennessee Valley, the Colbert Fossil Plant has been disconnected from the grid.
Environmental groups want the Nuclear Regulatory Commission to revoke licenses for two new reactors at the South Texas Project, claiming the project is controlled by a foreign owner in violation of the Atomic Energy Act.
Critics of the state’s process for selecting sites for renewable energy projects are opposing proposed legislation designed to give regional planning commissions greater say in where solar and wind power projects are located.
Electricity rates in the state are among the highest in the Midwest, but residents pay less than customers in surrounding states because they use less power on than average, according to a recent study by the Public Service Commission.
Duke has contracted with Carbon Cycle Energy, which will build and own a plant that will generate enough electricity from chicken and swine waste to power about 10,000 homes a year.
Black Hills Energy has started construction on a 144-mile, $54 million transmission line that will run from northeast Wyoming to Rapid City, S.D.
The operator of the Atlantic Coast Pipeline, a $5 billion pipeline that will deliver natural gas from Appalachian shale fields to Virginia and North Carolina, has sold 96% of the future pipeline’s capacity and surveyed 90% of the 550-mile route, according to an update from the company.
Lincoln Electric System, the Nebraska public utility serving the state capital region, approved a six-year $453 million capital budget to replace and upgrade infrastructure.
Two Hutchinson, Kan., residents were arrested in separate incidents for threatening Westar Energy employees who swapped out their old electric meters.
Duke Energy Renewables has purchased a proposed 20-MW solar project in California from EDF Renewable Energy. The project, to be built in San Bernardino County near Barstow, will be called the Longboat Solar Power Project.
Dynegy’s coal-fired Wood River plant in Illinois will be shuttered in June after a MISO study concluded it was no longer needed to ensure reliability in the region.