All NEM members and prospective members are invited to join the Executive Committee for an open meeting on October 3-5, 2001, at the Palmer House Hilton in Chicago. A block of rooms has been reserved at the rate of $179 per night. In order to receive the special rate, reservations must be received by September 14, 2001, at 312-726-5975. A draft agenda for the meeting is hotlinked here for your convenience. Many thanks to Exelon, Nicor, Peoples and Encorp for sponsoring the meeting. Please also mark your calendar for April 1 and 2, 2002, the Annual Membership Meeting and National Restructuring Conference, that will be held at the Marriott Metro Center in Washington, DC.

The NJ House and Assembly are considering legislation to establish telemarketing "do not call" lists. NJBPU Staff is seeking input on experiences with these lists in other states in the event the law is passed. Interested members should contact headquarters. The full text of the Proposed Bill is available on the NEM Website.

The Washington Post ran a series of articles this week on deregulation. The articles are available as follows: The New World of Electricity; The $3,880 Megawatt-Hour; Electric Competition Off To a Slow Start Locally; The Day The Area Dodged a Blackout; For Operators, a Daily High-Wire Act; 2 Sides Spend Millions To Generate Support; From Maine to N.Y. By Way of Atlanta; and Traders, Old Utilities Tangle Over Wires.

The MEGA electric utilities will hold a workshop on September 25, 2001, at 1PM to educate alternative electric suppliers about the terms, conditions and procedures for supplying electric power through their distribution systems. Those interested in participating should contact Suzy Denison at 517-484-7730 by August 31, 2001.

PPL petitioned the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit for review of FERC's Order requiring the commitment of capacity resources to PJM on a seasonal rather than daily basis. The full text of PPL's Petition is available from NEM headquarters.

Central Hudson has filed a proposed settlement agreement. The settlement would provide electric back-out credit levels of 0.5 mills/kWh for SC 13 customers; 2.0 mills/kWh for SC 3 customers; 3.0 mills/kWh for SC 2 demand customers; and 4 mills/kWh for SC 2 non-demand, SC 6 and SC 1 customers. The gas merchant function back-out credit would be set at $.15/Mcf. These credits are to be subject to change pending the results of the unbundling proceeding. Central Hudson will bill all delivery customers for ancillary services and reimburse ESCOs for the ancillary service charges incurred to serve Central Hudson load. The full text of the Central Hudson Proposed Settlement and Appendices are available on the NEM Website.

NEM filed testimony in the Commonwealth Edison delivery services proceeding asserting that: 1) the proposed delivery service rate should not include reallocations from generation to distribution and transmission; 2) shopping credits should be structured to reflect the fully embedded costs associated with the energy supply and commercial costs of serving retail load; 3) the proposed metering credits are anti-competitive and 2900% lower than they should be if properly computed; 4) customer enrollment should be allowed by electronic, telephonic, and written means; and 5) competitive supply and implementation of distributed generation should immediately be opened to competition. The full text of NEM's Testimony is available on the NEM Website.

Staff filed testimony arguing that: 1) embedded cost of service studies should be used to determine delivery service rates because rates based on marginal cost of service studies do not send proper price signals to consumers; 2) ComEd's calculation of single bill option and meter service provider credits is seriously flawed; 3) ComEd should consider relaxing its minimum stay requirement from 24 to 12 months; and 4) suppliers should be permitted to use electronic signatures for Letters of Agency and internet enrollment. The full text of Staff's Testimony is available on the NEM Website.

The U.S. Department of Energy submitted testimony arguing that ComEd's rates should be set based on marginal costs rather than embedded costs. DOE argued that this model results in more efficient pricing. The full text of DOE's Testimony is available on the NEM Website.

A law was passed to amend the Customer Choice and Electricity Reliability Act supporting NEM's position that alternative electric suppliers are not utilities. The full text of S.B.446 is available on the NEM Website.

NEM filed comments on Staff's Competitive Metering Report arguing that the Commission should immediately unbundle the fully embedded monopoly costs associated with metering and related information technology functions and make these costs known to consumers and the competitive marketplace. NEM also recommended that the Commission should provide shopping credits to consumers equal to the fully embedded costs of all metering services and related information technologies including ownership, installation, servicing of equipment, maintenance, testing, reading, data management, validation, editing, estimations, pulse output transmission via Internet and billing. The full text of NEM's Comments is available on the NEM Website.

The Consumer Counsel filed comments supporting the competitive provision of metering services as soon as practicable. However, the Consumer Counsel agreed with Staff's recommendation that competitive metering be implemented through a phased in approach, with the first stage being the provision of real time or near real time meter data to all customers or third parties. The full text of the Consumer Counsel's Comments is available from NEM headquarters.