Puc

Members of the Pennsylvania Public Utility Commission, citing concerns over Philadelphia's aging natural gas pipelines, have expressed frustration at the slow pace of a city study about privatizing Philadelphia Gas Works. Some members of the commission, who met Tuesday with The Inquirer's editorial board, want to renew pressure on the city to sell the utility, saying a private buyer could draw on greater resources to replace the 1,500 miles of brittle cast-iron mains that will take the cash-strapped utility 85 years to replace at its current pace.

Philadelphia Gas Works chief executive Craig E. White on Thursday expressed "disappointment" with a stinging 334-count complaint by state regulators that alleges the utility botched its response to a fatal gas-main leak last January. White, in a message in the utility's internal monthly newsletter, defended PGW's response to the Jan. 18 explosion in Tacony that killed PGW worker Mark Keeley and injured five employees. On Dec. 15, the Pennsylvania Public Utility Commission alleged that PGW "failed to take required steps to minimize the danger of accidental ignition of gas," but the panel stopped short of saying PGW caused the blast.

Philadelphia Gas Works chief executive Craig E. White on Thursday expressed "disappointment" with a stinging 334-count complaint by state regulators that alleges the utility botched its response to a fatal gas-main leak last January. White, in a message in the utility's internal monthly newsletter, defended PGW's response to the Jan. 18 explosion in Tacony that killed PGW worker Mark Keeley and injured five other employees. On Dec. 15, the Pennsylvania Public Utility Commission alleged that PGW "failed to take required steps to minimize the danger of accidental ignition of gas," but the panel stopped short of saying PGW caused the blast.

State regulators on Thursday slapped Philadelphia Gas Works with a 334-count complaint alleging the utility failed to properly follow procedures in connection with a Jan. 18 explosion in Tacony that killed a 19-year-old PGW worker and injured five other employees. The Pennsylvania Public Utility Commission said PGW "failed to take required steps to minimize the danger of accidental ignition of gas" after its workers responded to a reported gas leak in the 6900 block of Torresdale Avenue.

The Pennsylvania Public Utility Commission has scrapped plans for a new area code that would have affected the York area. Commissioners dismissed a petition filed about two years ago by Neustar Inc., the number planner for Pennsylvania, because it was concerned that the 717 area code would be depleted of number combinations by the third quarter of 2012. The commission announced Thursday that plans were dropped because, according to new data, the number combinations won't be exhausted until the fourth quarter of 2016, so the relief plan might be withdrawn or dismissed.

The Pennsylvania Public Utility Commission on Wednesday announced it will hold a special reliability forum in Harrisburg on Oct. 12 to hear how the state's electric utilities managed their responses to Hurricane Irene, which caused 1.3 million outages. "By taking a step back and looking at how the utilities responded and where we can make improvements allows us to strive for an even more effective response in the future," PUC Chairman Robert F. Powelson said in a statement. At the height of the Aug. 27 storm, about 768,000 customers were without power.

The Pennsylvania Public Utility Commission, responding to an Inquirer article about potential overcharging by several residential electricity suppliers, has called upon the power industry to comply with PUC billing regulations. In a letter dated Friday, the PUC ordered the state's electric utilities and more than 100 licensed electricity suppliers to disclose any billing irregularities and "planned corrective measures. " The PUC's letter was prompted by a May 15 Inquirer article that showed how a Brooklyn electricity supplier had failed to disclose its rates on customer bills, and how another supplier had mistakenly billed 5,770 residential customers for sales tax. The PUC, concerned that the billing goofs could undermine consumer confidence in Pennsylvania's nascent deregulated electrical markets, gave the suppliers until June 10 to account for their billing practices.

Robert F. Powelson, the chairman of the Pennsylvania Public Utility Commission, is not impressed that 18 percent of Peco Energy Co.'s electric customers have switched suppliers since Jan. 1. "That's great," Powelson said in an interview. "What's the problem? Eighty-two percent are paying the default rate. They're paying a premium. Shop. Save money. " Powelson, appointed to the commission in 2008 and promoted by Gov. Corbett to chairman this year, is leading a charge to review the state's deregulated electricity markets.