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Gold/Mining/Energy : Keystone Energy Services - KESE on BB Nasdaq -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: unregmarket who wrote (89)	11/21/1997 8:51:00 PM
From: MARIO PASQUA	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 307

Here some reading on the subject...it seems that the existing<> already customer based utilities are welcoming deregulation. Northeast Utilities (NU) will have Millstone unit # 3 on line by January 1998. Book value $16.00 per share. Last trade $13 1/8. I believe it will be $18.00+ by end of December. ----------------------------------------------------- Friday November 21, 6:04 pm Eastern Time Northeast upbeat on N.H. deregulation CONCORD, N.H., Nov 21 (Reuters) - A Public Service Co. of New Hampshire (PSNH) spokesman said on Friday that New Hampshire could have competition in its electric industry by July 1998. PSNH, the state's biggest electric utility with 400,000 customers, is a subsidiary of Connecticut-based Northeast Utilities (NYSE:NU - news). PSNH and New Hampshire officials have been arguing over electric deregulation for most of this year. The state has traditionally had among the highest electric rates in the country. New Hampshire earlier this year called for opening its electric industry by July 1998, but Northeast filed lawsuits and said PSNH could go bankrupt under the aggressive plan. However, now ''We feel that it's possible to lower rates and to begin choice or competition in New Hampshire by July 1998,'' PSNH spokesman Martin Murray told Reuters in an interview. ''That's significant, because that's what the legislature wants us to do, and has charged the (New Hampshire Public Utilities Commission) with implementing,'' Murray said. ''We're in agreement with the state, and the governor in particular, that we should auction off our generating assets as a way of determining our stranded costs,'' Murray said. Murray did not estimate how much a sale of the generating plants would bring. ''We also agree that securitization is probably a terrific financial tool to lower rates quickly,'' Murray said. Stranded costs refer to a utility's outstanding debt on investments in plants, equipment and programs that were made while the industry was a regulated monopoly. Securitization involves the issuing of bonds to cover a utility's stranded costs. Under PSNH's latest proposal, the refinancing of $1.1 billion in debt through securitization would allow PSNH to pass on about $50 million in savings to customers each year, Murray said. He said this would amount to a rate cut of about six to seven percent. The rates would be collected on PSNH transmission and distribution services, since it would no longer be a power generator, Murray said. Ongoing NHPUC hearings are scheduled to be held through November 26 on the state's electric restructuring order. ''At the same time, we know there are significant obstacles that we have to overcome,'' Murray said. ''We still have an ongoing dispute in federal court that has to be considered, and there are regulatory hurdles.'' ''But we don't feel that those hurdles are insurmountable. In fact, we're still optimistic that we'll be able to overcome them and move forward,'' Murray said. ''That's really what has to happen in New Hampshire if we're going to keep pace with the rest of the region -- particularly Massachusetts, which appears ready to move ahead on March 1.'' Northeast Utilities stock was up six cents to $13.1/16 on volume of 787,900 shares late on Friday afternoon.