U.S. power companies withholding data from regulators

Mar 21, 2001

U.S. power companies withholding data from regulators - Nugent

U.S. power companies are increasingly refusing to provide data on their generation facilities to state utility regulators, said William Nugent, a commissioner at the Maine Public Utilities Commission.

Testifying before the Senate Energy Committee, Nugent also stressed that this refusal to provide key data is severely hampering state regulators "in their efforts to determine whether there is gaming of the market," like the withholding of capacity at or near peak times.

"State public utility commissions around the country, but particularly in the west (of the U.S.), increasingly are faced with refusals by utilities and non-utilities that own generation facilities to provide data," said Nugent.

The commissioner also urged the U.S. Department of Energies Information Administration not to aggregate its data form reports and not to withhold data that might be confidential.

Without such data, Nugent stressed that state regulators will be unable to monitor the electricity markets to ensure that they are free of abuse.

Yesterday, Congressman Jay Inslee said western U.S. power companies are charging "obscene prices" and he called for Federal regulators to increase their investigations of such charging.