NEM is pleased to announce that Southern Energy has been elected to the Executive Committee. Southern Energy is one of the world's largest competitive providers of electricity and energy-related products and services with businesses located in the Americas, Europe, and the Asia-Pacific region. Jeffrey Roark, Principal, Regulatory Affairs, William H. Marks, Principal, Regulatory Affairs, Pamela Hill, Director, Regulatory Affairs for the Americas region, and J. Rob Minter, Director, Governmental Affairs will represent Southern Energy within NEM.

 CASA Elected to Executive Committee

NEM is pleased to announce that Customer Acquisition Specialists of America, Inc. (CASA) has been elected to the Executive Committee. CASA focuses on acquiring energy customers in large volume and high quality. CASA employs well-trained sales representatives and uses an independent third party verification process. The principals of CASA have thirty years of sales experience. Patrick Clouden, CEO, and Jim Mathers, President, will represent CASA within NEM.

 USPower Solutions Joins NEM

NEM is pleased to announce that USPowerSolutions has joined. USPowerSolutions is a leading provider of customer-centric, enterprise-wide solutions for the deregulating energy marketplace. USPowerSolutions product provides energy companies with a single integrated point of access to best-of-breed providers across the entire commodity supply chain. Using an innovative and proprietary technology platform and a unique application delivery method, USPowerSolutions is able to very rapidly deploy world-class enterprise information systems that are cost effective, easy to manage, and highly flexible. USPowerSolutions' customers include some of the most innovative energy companies in North America. Alexander Kanuth, President, CEO and Co-founder, Carl Boeing, Senior Vice President of Client Operations, H. Ward Camp, Vice President of Industry Alliances and Regulatory Strategy, Diana Bolick, Vice President of Marketing, and Sara O'Neill, Regulatory Liaison, will represent USPowerSolutions within NEM.

 NEM's National Energy Restructuring Conference and Annual Membership Meeting

NEM will conduct its National Energy Restructuring Conference and Annual Membership Meeting on April 3-4, 2001, in Washington, D.C. A hotlink to the event is provided here for your convenience.

An article in Restructuring Today discusses the economic impact of environmental decisions and featured NEM President, Craig Goodman. In the article Goodman raises the issue of the failure of the siting process in California to weigh the obvious economic impacts of environmental decisions. The full text of the Restructuring Today Article is available on the NEM Website.

 FERC Staff Conference on Cross-Contract Ranking

FERC Staff will hold a conference on February 27, 2001, to discuss cross-contract ranking and confirmation standards. The purpose of the conference is to discuss how confirmation is currently conducted and to identify and discuss disputed issues. Requests to participate or make presentations are due January 16, 2001. Comments may be filed within thirty days after the conference. NEM members interested in participating should contact headquarters.

The Commission issued an Order approving GridFlorida's proposed governance structure with respect to selection criteria of Board members and the restrictions on financial interests of GridFlorida's directors, officers, and employees. The full text of the GridFlorida Order is available on the NEM Website.

NEM submitted comments on FERC's proposed California Natural Gas Marketers' Reports urging FERC to recast its Reports to require the reporting from the interstate pipelines who are able to bear the expense as opposed to unregulated marketers that operate on thin margins. NEM also argued that the contractual information requested is confidential and proprietary in nature and the release of such information could be problematic. The full text of NEM's Comments and the Notice of FERC's Proposed Reports is available on the NEM Website.

ALJs in the POLR Proceeding have issued a ruling requesting briefs on the scope of the Commission's authority, including whether utilities may be directed by the Commission to cease providing commodity to customers and whether the Commission may require customers to be switched from a utility's commodity service to that of an ESCO. The briefs are due February 16, 2001. The full text of the Procedural Ruling is available on the NEM Website.

The deadline for comments on the Commission's adoption of the UBP Report has changed. Comments on Chapter V, Billing and Payment Processing, are still due January 22, 2001. The deadline on comments on the other chapters of Volume 1 of the UBP Report has been extended to February 15, 2001. The full text of the Commission's Request for Comments is available on the NEM Website.

Bill inserts and company logos will be the subject of a conference call on January 16, 2001, at 1:30PM in the customer account services proceeding. This will be followed by a meeting on January 19, 2001, at PSE&G to discuss dispute process, cancel/rebill process, impact on existing consolidated billing fields, transition issues, and bill inserts/company logos, if necessary. The draft billing services agreement will be discussed at a meeting on January 23, 2001, at PSE&G. The full text of the sample bill formats of PSE&G and GPU, Orange & Rockland and Conectiv are available on the NEM Website.

NEM has filed comments in support of the Board's adoption of the RECO Settlement in the Customer Account Services proceeding. The full text of NEM's Comments is available on the NEM Website.

NEM has filed comments supporting BGE's Proposed Voluntary Electric Energy Monitoring and Use Pilot Program that would use the Internet for the transfer of energy information and the performance of energy-related transactions, including load curtailment. The full text of NEM's Comments is available on the NEM Website.

Staff, the utilities and Joint Advocates have filed comments on the second report of the Emissions Disclosure Working Group. The full text of Staff's Comments, Joint Utility Comments, and Joint Advocates Comments are available on the NEM Website.

The Commission is seeking comments on proposed modifications to written notice requirements imposed on Electric Generation Suppliers (EGSs). The Commission proposes that an initial Warning Notice be provided 45 to 90 days prior to the effective date of a proposed change in terms of service and a second Options Notice be provided at least 45 days prior to the effective date of a change, advising the customer of specific modifications and informing the customer of its option to select another EGS or to return to the utility for POLR service. The Commission proposes that the same timetable be followed in providing notice of impending expiration of a fixed term agreement. The Commission also proposes that EGSs should provide the utility notice of approaching expiration dates of fixed term agreements or changes in terms of service. Comments are due January 17, 2001, and reply comments are due January 31, 2001. The full text of the Order on Proposed Modifications to EGS Notice Requirements is available on the NEM Website.

Staff has formed a workgroup to consider rules applicable at the start of electric retail access on January 1, 2002. Staff intends to prepare a report by March 5^th before final rules are adopted in July. There will be an opportunity for comments and hearing prior to adoption of the final rules. The workgroup will reconvene January 17-18, 2001, to consider customer lists, codes of conduct, and load profiling and settlement. Staff is using the Interim Pilot rules as the basis for the discussion. The full text of the Interim Pilot Rules is available on the NEM Website.

NEM has filed comments on the further unbundling of utility gas rates and services arguing that regulated utilities should sell regulated distribution services on a cost of service basis and unbundle other services such as injection, storage, withdrawal, and load management. NEM also argued that the types of services that should be unbundled must also include energy-related items such as metering, billing and information services. The full text of NEM 's Comments is available on the NEM Website.

The DTE has issued a Report recommending that metering-related services and billing services should not be unbundled and provided through the competitive market. The DTE will institute proceedings on the provision of advanced metering by the distribution companies as well as a supplier single-bill option. The full text of the DTE MBIS Report is available on the NEM Website.

Governor Davis outlined proposed energy policy measures in his state of the state address for the state legislature to implement as follows: restructure operating system governing boards, overhaul electricity bidding processes, increase monitoring of generating facilities, streamline processes for utilities to enter into long term contracts for electricity, require utilities to keep their remaining generating facilities and sell their power within California, and commit state-owned land to siting of generating plants on the condition that the energy be provided to Californians. The full text of Governor Davis' Address is available on the NEM Website.