The big switch

Nation's Business, Sept, 1997 by James Worsham

* Get help in analyzing competing offers. Request a customer guide from your state's public utility commission, which likely will have ordered deregulation. Trade associations, chambers of commerce, and city or state consumer-affairs offices also may offer help.

* Join a group. A small business generally lacks the market influence to obtain the big-volume discounts that a large industrial user can get. But small firms can pool, or aggregate, themselves. Cities and towns already are aggregations, but business groups or neighborhood associations could form groups.

* If you rent space and electricity is included in the rent, determine the portion of the rent that goes to pay for electricity.

If your landlord is able to get electricity for less, make sure the savings are passed on to you.

* If you find comparing rates and services too confusing, you can hire a firm to shop for the best electricity buy for you and to handle all your needs for electricity, oil, gas, telephones, and possibly even Internet and security services. You should get good prices because the firm you pick presumably will be buying in large quantities.

* If deregulation hasn't reached your state or if the final rules haven't been written, make your views known on the issues most important to you. Contact your state representatives or public utility commission or work through business groups or coalitions.

Jacqueline Killgore, president of the New Hampshire Public Utility Policy Institute, a research and education group based in Concord, says it's important for electricity users to take time to consider offers and pick the best one.

She adds: "My greatest fear is that people won't exercise the choices they have and we will end up with the worst of all worlds -- an unregulated monopoly."

The States Take The Lead

While Congress considers various proposals to restructure the electric-power industry, state legislatures and regulatory commissions are moving ahead in that direction.

The circumstances vary widely by state. In some states, legislatures have passed deregulation hills and regulators are taking action to carry them out. In others states, regulators have acted on their own because they have broad authority and the political climate allows them to move ahead, says Charles Gray, general counsel of the National Association of Regulatory Utility Commissioners.

In most states, regulators either are studying deregulation, have official investigations under way, are holding hearings, or have issued a draft order.

There are court challenges in five states -- including four where regulators have issued their final deregulation orders.

Here is a status report as of mid-July from the National Regulatory Research Institute, an arm of the utility-commissioners association.

Regulations Final:

Arizona, California, Massachusetts, Michigan, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, Texas, Vermont.

Legislation Approved:

California, Maine, Montana, Nevada, New Hampshire, Oklahoma, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island.

Legislation Failed or Vetoed: