Electricity

In the new world of competitive electricity markets, one alternative power supplier has attracted the attention of regulators in two states. North American Power, a Connecticut company, is facing a deceptive-practices complaint from the Maryland Public Service Commission that could lead to the loss of its license there. And in Pennsylvania, North American's salespeople have raised eyebrows with aggressive tactics, including a website apparently designed to look like papowerswitch.

Thousands of homes and businesses remained without electricity Saturday as utility company crews worked to repair the outages left from a powerful storm that swept the area Thursday. About 30,000 customers still did not have power by about noon Saturday, said Karen Muldoon Geus, Peco Energy Co.'s director of communications. All electricity service should be restored by Sunday night, she said. More than 200,000 homes and businesses lost power, mainly because of downed trees that snapped lines.

Last Friday morning, PGW managers pulled out the stops when they announced their intention to partner with a California energy company to sell electricity under Pennsylvania's deregulated electricity market initiative. In a gala media show, actors portraying Thomas Edison and Ben Franklin lauded the alliance between the city-owned utility and Edison Source, of City of Industry, Calif. There were balloons, PGW sunglasses and plenty of pastry. By day's end though, some of those balloons burst when the public advocate filed a 25-page opinion urging the Philadelphia Gas Commission to reject PGW's proposal.

A freak accident in the Grenloch area of Washington Township knocked out electric power to more than 5,200 customers yesterday, according to a spokeswoman for the Atlantic Electric Co. Washington Township police said a backhoe being transported on a flatbed trailer fell over on its side at 6:50 a.m. on Grenloch-Hurffville Road near County House Road, as the tractor-trailer was making a turn, and knocked down an electric transformer housed on...

Electricity is in the news these days. After more than a century of being sent a regular take-it-or-leave-it bill from our only source of it, now we're being given a choice of a supplier. But that raises a lot of questions, not just about what we're being asked to choose, but also some more basic questions as well. Here are some: What is electricity, anyway? Well, it's two things, actually. One, it's a stream of minute particles called electrons, so small they're invisible to us. And, two, it's a commodity that can now be bought and sold on the open market.

Just when you thought it was safe to make a long-distance call without getting bugged by the Dime Lady, the Legislature is itching to enact a sweeping bill that would deregulate who could sell you electricity. The bill looks pretty good to us, but (surprise) we know our wisdom is not infinite. So it's a deep concern that the final language has been in place only since Nov. 12. Something minor but important about how it all fits together just may have been missed. And how many legislators understand what they'll be voting on - or as lame ducks have incentive to care?

An association of competitive electrical suppliers launched a campaign Monday to educate consumers about choosing power suppliers, including how to recognize some of the shady sales tactics that have given the industry a black eye. The Retail Energy Supply Association (RESA) unveiled a four-page consumer-education guide , an effort to sell a skeptical public on the virtues of giving up regulated utilities. "We're taking more of a leadership role in trying to facilitate the education of consumers about customer choice," David Fein, the group's president, said in a media conference call.

Schools, towns and fire districts could save 20 percent on their electricity bills if they joined a purchasing consortium sponsored by the Burlington County freeholders, county officials said yesterday. About 127 public entities are being asked to participate in the venture, which may begin in November. If successful, the program will be offered to residents as well. The plan is part of the county's 20-year-old Cooperative Pricing System, whose 64 members benefit from bulk purchases ranging from dairy products to road-construction materials.

Like many of his fellow electricity shoppers, Robert H. Glazier readily admits he's confused. Glazier was chosen to participate in the 14-month pilot program that begins Nov. 1, in which he and 250,000 other Pennsylvanians can buy their electricity in a new way - in a competitive market. No longer will Glazier have to buy his kilowatt-hours from Peco Energy, the regulated utility that serves his home town of Springfield, Delaware County. Instead, at least seven other electricity suppliers have been vying for his business, companies with names as familiar as Pennsylvania Power & Light and as brand-new as QST Energy and Conectiv.

City Council yesterday unanimously approved PGW's plan to go into the electricity-sales business with QST Energy Co., a subsidiary of a Peoria, Ill., energy company. Under the joint-venture agreement, the companies will take part in a 14-month pilot program made possibile by the state's electricity competition law enacted last year. The pilot program will start tomorrow. PGW vice president B.Z. Karachiwala said yesterday that about 2,254 city residents have signed up for program, which includes a 10 percent reduction in a typical monthly bill, a month of free electricity and a $15 rebate.

When Esperanza Spalding bested Justin Bieber for Best New Artist at the 2011 Grammy Awards, the upset was greeted by outraged tweets from Bieber's preteen constituency, shocked fanfare from the jaded jazz community, and confused stares from almost everyone else. If the crowd that gathered at the Electric Factory on Sunday night was any indication, far fewer people are asking, "Who is Esperanza Spalding?" these days. That's due in part to a series of very high-profile gigs.

Delaware gets it, says KR Sridhar, space-engineering professor-turned-Silicon Valley energy missionary, and boss of Bloom Energy (formerly Ion America), which plans to build what he says are efficient electricity-generating fuel cells — a Holy Grail of energy engineering — in Newark, Del., on the rubble of an old Chrysler plant. With state support, of course: $16 million in grants, a new state law that allows Delmarva Power to use fuel cells instead of solar or wind power for green-energy credits, and a consumer surcharge that will boost the cost of electricity to Delaware homeowners by more than $1 a month, for up to 21 years, with the money going to Bloom.

Music The Campus Consciousness Tour starring J. Cole and Big K.R.I.T. Though one can't be completely certain as to how conscious of university status, matriculation, or curriculum vitae either rapper is, don't doubt the entertainment factor of having J. Cole and Big K.R.I.T. together. The sturdy Def Jam rapper K.R.I.T., a highly regarded producer as well as a fierce-flowing MC, dropped both his major-label album Live From the Underground and his new mix tape, 4Eva N a Day, within the last year, and the mouth from Mississippi thrills throughout both Southern-fried recordings.

Friends and family have sometimes questioned their sanity - and no wonder. Vinnie Carchia pilots a helicopter hovering a few feet from 500,000-volt power lines while PSE&G lineman Ryan Hill repairs them from a side platform. "Other pilots tell you, 'We were taught to stay away from the wires, and you're putting them right outside your door,' " said Carchia, the utility's only pilot. "For someone like my mother, it's hard to explain," said Hill, who works on the platform.

Electrical wiring caused the blaze that killed a family of four early Monday in West Philadelphia, fire officials said Wednesday. The blaze, which broke out just before 5 a.m. in a rowhouse on Chancellor Street near 52d Street, killed Rishya Jenkins, 23, her stepson Cyncere McClendon, 4, her son Jayden McClendon, 2, and Seneca "Chuck" McClendon, 75. It was the city's third fatal fire in a week. Jenkins was planning to get married in June; her fiance discovered the fire and tried vainly to save his family.

The Pennsylvania Public Utility Commission announced Monday it will hold a forum May 31 in Philadelphia to examine policy issues related to the increased use of vehicles powered by electricity and natural gas. Pennsylvania has become a center of natural gas production because of the Marcellus Shale formation, PUC Chairman Robert F. Powelson said in a statement. "This activity, the corresponding drop in electric generation prices coupled with the appreciation of oil prices, has clarified the need for the PUC to explore policies and regulatory frameworks that can support investments in natural gas and electric vehicles.

NEW YORK - Just when it looked like electric cars were running out of juice, the return of $4-a-gallon gasoline is generating new life for battery-powered vehicles. Electric-drive vehicles, including hybrids, plug-in models and pure battery-powered cars, were the fastest-growing segment in the U.S. auto market in the first quarter, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. Sales of those models rose 49 percent to 117,182 vehicles in the first quarter, from 78,527 a year earlier before Japan's earthquake and tsunami pinched output.

Pennsylvania Public Utility Commission investigators on Thursday filed a formal complaint seeking to revoke the license of Glacial Energy of Pennsylvania, Inc. for allegedly omitting information in its 2009 application to be an electric generation supplier. The complaint is the PUC's first attempt to put a supplier in Pennsylvania's robust competitive electricity market out of business. The PUC's Bureau of Investigation and Enforcement alleged that Glacial Energy did not report that its chief executive, Gary Mole, had an ownership interest in Franklin Power Co., an electricity supplier whose license was revoked in Texas in 2006.

By Llewellyn King When the Obama administration seeks to explain its oil policy, it changes the subject mid-sentence. The most frequent practitioner of this verbal contortion is the president's press secretary, Jay Carney. It is as though he's a magician who has promised to pull a live rabbit from his top hat. This conjurer stands before his audience, recites some incantations and, poof, retrieves not a live rabbit, but a dead chicken. Carney, like others in the administration, starts talking about oil and switches to talking about "alternatives.

Joseph Anthony Terranova, 93, formerly of Newtown Square, an electrical engineer, died of heart failure Sunday at Garden Spot Village, a retirement community in New Holland, Pa. Mr. Terranova was a tool engineer at J.G. Brill Co., a manufacturer of streetcars and buses in Philadelphia. Then, for more than a decade, he was an engineer at the General Electric Co. facility in West Philadelphia. In the mid-1970s, he joined Allen E. Wood Electrical Consulting in Center City. He established his own electrical consulting firm, UIC Engineering, in the mid-1980s.