Industries Signal Restructuring Armistice
Long-simmering interest in electric restructuring among major industrial power consumers may finally have been taken off even the back burner, reaction to new ratemaking moves by the Wisconsin Public Service Commission (PSC) suggests.
Late last month the commission approved an experimental pilot program called the “Day-Ahead Market Pricing Rider,” allowing Wisconsin Power and Light to offer industrial customers opportunities to shift load in response to power market signals.
Todd Stuart, executive director of the Wisconsin Industrial Energy Group (WIEG), issued a statement saying his members “appreciate WP&L’s efforts to move quickly on innovative real-time pricing options that provide manufacturers with additional rate choices and an ability to have more control in managing their costs.”
The statement appeared to signal that the PSC was close to successfully defusing an issue that triggered a new campaign for retail deregulation beginning about a year ago.
The WIEG membership includes Wisconsin’s 30 highest-volume electricity users and some of the strongest advocates of retail electric deregulation. The central issue driving continued interest in the largely dormant restructuring movement had been the perceived effect of electric rates on business competitiveness, and Stuart called the WP&L tariff “a good example of a utility working with the PSC staff and their customers in a good faith effort to keep us cost competitive in global markets.”
Last summer, an effort to rekindle legislative interest in restructuring was spearheaded by Saukville-based WIEG member Charter Steel announcing it would not further expand its business in Wisconsin because of what it deemed excessive rates paid to WE Energies.
The idea met with a cool reception in the legislature, and the PSC indicated it preferred more creative ratemaking as a means of addressing the industries’ concerns over rates that had eclipsed those in neighboring states—in part because of the cost of new infrastructure built to resolve reliability problems that prompted Wisconsin industries to call for retail choice 20 years earlier.
The Wisconsin Paper Council greeted the WP&L tariff approval with enthusiasm similar to that of WIEG and also sounded the business growth theme.
“Innovative rate options such as the real-time pricing tariffs are an important tool for both retaining and expanding manufacturing in Wisconsin,” Paper Council President Jeff Landin said in a joint statement with WIEG saying both groups “applaud” the PSC action.
Late last month the commission approved an experimental pilot program called the “Day-Ahead Market Pricing Rider,” allowing Wisconsin Power and Light to offer industrial customers opportunities to shift load in response to power market signals.
Todd Stuart, executive director of the Wisconsin Industrial Energy Group (WIEG), issued a statement saying his members “appreciate WP&L’s efforts to move quickly on innovative real-time pricing options that provide manufacturers with additional rate choices and an ability to have more control in managing their costs.”
The statement appeared to signal that the PSC was close to successfully defusing an issue that triggered a new campaign for retail deregulation beginning about a year ago.
The WIEG membership includes Wisconsin’s 30 highest-volume electricity users and some of the strongest advocates of retail electric deregulation. The central issue driving continued interest in the largely dormant restructuring movement had been the perceived effect of electric rates on business competitiveness, and Stuart called the WP&L tariff “a good example of a utility working with the PSC staff and their customers in a good faith effort to keep us cost competitive in global markets.”
Last summer, an effort to rekindle legislative interest in restructuring was spearheaded by Saukville-based WIEG member Charter Steel announcing it would not further expand its business in Wisconsin because of what it deemed excessive rates paid to WE Energies.
The idea met with a cool reception in the legislature, and the PSC indicated it preferred more creative ratemaking as a means of addressing the industries’ concerns over rates that had eclipsed those in neighboring states—in part because of the cost of new infrastructure built to resolve reliability problems that prompted Wisconsin industries to call for retail choice 20 years earlier.
The Wisconsin Paper Council greeted the WP&L tariff approval with enthusiasm similar to that of WIEG and also sounded the business growth theme.
“Innovative rate options such as the real-time pricing tariffs are an important tool for both retaining and expanding manufacturing in Wisconsin,” Paper Council President Jeff Landin said in a joint statement with WIEG saying both groups “applaud” the PSC action.