ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Thursday, November 14, 1996 TAG: 9611140020
SECTION: BUSINESS PAGE: B-6 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: GREG EDWARDS STAFF WRITER
Virginia's State Corporation Commission has ordered its staff and the state's three largest electric utilities to provide more information about what retail competition would mean to the state's electric power industry and to consumers.
The commission's action delves deeper into the specifics of the retail issue than what American Electric Power Co., at least, had expected so soon. The commission has essentially asked the utilities to tell it what competition is going to look like for power customers, AEP spokesman Tom Ayers said Wednesday.
At the end of July the SCC staff filed a report with commission, recommending that the state go slow in bringing retail competition to the power industry. Because Virginia already enjoys relatively low consumer prices for power, the state may have little to gain and much to lose from a move to competition, the staff suggested.
But the SCC said Tuesday that more study is needed to determine what, if any, restructuring of the power industry would benefit Virginians.
The commission has asked the three largest power companies operating in the state - Virginia Power, American Electric Power and Allegheny Power - to address specific issues related to how competition would work. Among the issues are how they would prepare for future customer needs in a competitive environment and how competition would affect different categories of customers.
AEP is supportive of what the commission is doing, although the company had asked the commission to look at the issue of competition and power industry restructuring in a much broader sense, Ayers said. The commission's action puts Virginia back on the national stage with the competition issue in a very active way, he said.
The commission acknowledged in its new order that it has asked AEP to provide a vast amount of specific information about costs, revenues and how the company operates. A lot of people are going to be real busy preparing that information by the commission's March 31 deadline, Ayers said.
Meanwhile, the SCC has asked its staff to monitor existing competition on the wholesale level and how it affects Virginia utilities. The SCC also wants reports from the staff on electric service quality in Virginia and the results of retail competition in other states. The new staff reports are due beginning next June1.
The Virginia Citizens Consumer Council has said the state should allow competition only if it means lower rates for residential power customers.
LENGTH: Medium: 51 linesby CNB