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Listening to the grassroot
Need help gauging the level of customer interest in
Ohio's electric deregulation program? Last month's public hearing
in Columbus may help. One guy showed up.
Last month, The Wire noted growing concern among state
officials who fear a bad reaction from Ohio customers facing potential
cost increases when a rate freeze expires in markets without competitors.
Since then, the Public Utilities Commission of Ohio held a hearing
in Columbus on a possible twoyear extension of a Dayton Power and
Light (DPL) rate freeze, with the utility permitted to continue
collecting for stranded costs during that time.
The Dayton Daily News reported
that only one DPL customer came to testify. DPL has no competitors
offering to serve its customers. Only one Ohio utility does. Cinergy
customers could choose to buy electricity from Dominion Retail of
Virginia.
According to the paper, the customer urged the commission
to drop retail competition.
Xcel subsidiary bankrupt
NRG Energy is now officially the latest addition to the list of
casualties from the big '90s adventure in electricity marketing.
The non-utility subsidiary of Minneapolisbased Xcel Energy—which
was not included in the filing—petitioned for Chapter 11 bankruptcy
protection on May 14.
NRG had been struggling for almost a year and a half to reduce
its debt and strengthen its bottom line. But the heavy cost of building
up its fleet of non-utility generating plants in and outside the
U.S., combined with a prolonged slump in demand for its product,
left the firm with assets of $10.9 billion and liabilities of $11.6
billion at the end of 2002.
Xcel, energy supplier to many western Wisconsin customers, is
not untouched. The NRG reorganization plan calls for payments by
Xcel to NRG and its creditors totaling threequarters of a billion
dollars.
There were those who saw a bright side to this. Utility investment
analyst David Parker of Robert W. Baird and Co. was quoted by Reuters
news service saying, "So Xcel becomes a good old boring utility
again and that's good news."
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