On Wednesday, September 22, 2004 at 10:00 a.m., the Commission will hold a conference to discuss preparations for the winter supply. The Commission seeks to review plans already made to meet winter demand and to raise customer awareness about market conditions. The conference will be held at the Commission's 16th floor hearing room and participants wishing to make presentations should contact James W. Boone at 410-767-8086 to discuss order of presentations. The full text of the notice is available on the NEM web site.

In the Detroit Edison (DTE) case, the ALJ proposes to accept Staff's computation of $43,613,000 in stranded costs to be charged to both choice and bundled customers. This order, however, would be the last time choice customers would be charged stranded costs for investment in production plant.

The ALJ found that minimum stay periods are counterproductive in the move to a competitive market, given the lack of evidence of customer gaming, and proposed that customers returning to regulated service pay the higher of the market rate or the bundled rate.

The ALJ also accepted Staff's proposal that DTE work collaboratively with the parties on a plan to overcome metering differences. Exceptions must be filed by September 16, 2004 and replies must be filed by October 7, 2004. The full text of the ALJ's Proposed Decision is available on the NEM web site.

Please be advised that there are analyses and program details for each utility in the State of New York available to Members on the NEM web site. The analyses cover both natural gas and electricity program details. If you have forgotten your password to the site, please contact headquarters.

The NYISO proposed modifications of its the Day-Ahead Demand Reduction Program (DADRP) to take effect during the Winter 2004/2005 Capability Period, beginning November 1, 2004. The proposal raises the zonal floor bid price from $50 per Megawatt hour to $75 per Megawatt hour for DADRP Resource bids in the Day-Ahead energy market. The NYISO argues this increase is necessary to reduce free riders and to increase net social welfare.

The proposal also eliminates the October 31, 2004, sunset date for the Demand Reduction Incentive Payment and thus extends the program. Finally, the NYISO reiterates its position that Distributed Generation (DG) should be prohibited from participating in the program. Comments are due by September 22, 2004. The full text of NYISO's proposal is available on the NEM web site.

As directed by by the Commission, FirstEnergy has filed a proposal for a competitive bidding process (CBP) for their Provider of Last Resort (POLR) load from January 1, 2006 - January 31, 2009. FirstEnergy will use a multiple round, descending clock auction to take place in November 2004. At the close of the auction, the results will be presented to the Commission, and if accepted, bidders will become authorized POLR suppliers and will begin full requirements service at 12:00:01 on January 1, 2006. In the event that the Commission does not approve the results, the Rate Stabilization Plan (RSP) pricing will go into effect. The load will be divided into 100 tranches (each representing 1% of load) and, in each round, bidders will have to indicate how many tranches they wish to serve at the price announced at the beginning of the round by the Auction Manager. If, at the end of a round, there are more bids for tranches than tranches needed, the Auction Manager will reduce the price a decrement and the bidding rounds will continue until the number of bids and the number of tranches equalize. Suppliers wishing to participate in the auction must complete a two-part application process and pay a fee per tranche won to offset the cost of the auction. More information is available on the auction web site. Comments on the CBP proposal must be submitted to the Commission by September 13, 2004 with reply comments due September 17, 2004. The full text of the CBP is available on the NEM web site.