Allegheny Power

HAGERSTOWN -- Allegheny Power System Inc., an electric utility holding company that serves 1.4 million customers, including 188,000 in Western Maryland, will relocate its New York City headquarters to Washington County by late 1996, company officials said yesterday.The move will mean the relocation of "fewer than 20 workers," primarily senior management officials and management personnel, said Donald L. Whipp, a spokesman for Allegheny Power System Inc.The company's three subsidiaries serve a 29,000-square-mile area that includes parts of Maryland, Virginia, West Virginia, Pennsylvania and Ohio.

Responding to customer outrage, a Western Maryland utility promised yesterday that it would refund a surcharge that was levied on 220,000 customers to pay for energy-efficient light bulbs mailed to them as part of a conservation program. Jeff Trout, attorney for Allegheny Power, defended the program in a meeting with the state Public Service Commission yesterday, but he acknowledged that its execution was flawed. Allegheny Power's shareholders will pay the full cost of the $2.5 million program, he said.

Allegheny Power System has abandoned its campaign against a $446 million power plant under construction in Cumberland, which it says will force a 13 percent rise in the electric rates for 192,000 Marylanders from Garrett to Howard counties.The failure of Allegheny Power to renegotiate or terminate its contract with AES Corp. ends months of public strife over the Warrior Run plant, which is scheduled to begin generating electricity in 1999.A 13 percent rate rise would add $115 per year to the average residential electric bill, and, Allegheny Power claims, would cost the region more than 1,000 jobs.

.. The intention was good: Maryland power companies would help customers save electricity by providing discounted or free energy-efficient light bulbs. But consumers have discovered they're paying for the program - whether they use it or not - with a surcharge on every month's utility bills. And only a few stores offer the discount, which means inconvenience - if the consumer bothers to try to find the bulbs at all. Even the U.S. Postal Service has complained.

Seeking to avoid the turmoil BGE underwent over plans to sharply raise electricity rates last year, the utility serving thousands of homes in parts of Howard and Carroll counties and Western Maryland has asked regulators for permission to increase rates this spring -- well before price caps expire. The idea, Allegheny Power says, is to impose two 15 percent surcharges and use the money plus interest to soften the blow for consumers when the company's price caps take effect in 2009. Those affected by the plan will get a chance starting this week to offer their opinions to the state's Public Service Commission.

Allegheny Power Co. plans to build a substation with a 65-foot wooden pole atop Parr's Ridge, the highest point between the Catoctin Mountains and the Chesapeake Bay.A Mount Airy-area citizens group won a partial victory last week in its 10-month effort to get the Hagerstown-based utility to make the substation as unobtrusive as possible to its residential neighbors and motorists on nearby Interstate 70.Frederick County's Zoning Appeals Board placed limits...

More than 14,000 customers in Carroll and Frederick counties - mostly in Mount Airy - were still without power yesterday as a result of the ice storm that swept through the region Wednesday. Electrical service should be restored to all customers by noon today, said Allegheny Power spokesman Michael A. Grandillo. He said that the company had restored power to about 60,000 customers since Thursday. But the lights were still out for about 5,000 customers in Frederick County, 8,500 in Mount Airy and 850 in other parts of Carroll County and Western Maryland.

Responding to customer outrage, a Western Maryland utility promised yesterday that it would refund a surcharge that was levied on 220,000 customers to pay for energy-efficient light bulbs mailed to them as part of a conservation program. Jeff Trout, attorney for Allegheny Power, defended the program in a meeting with the state Public Service Commission yesterday, but he acknowledged that its execution was flawed. Allegheny Power's shareholders will pay the full cost of the $2.5 million program, he said.

Seeking to avoid the turmoil BGE underwent over plans to sharply raise electricity rates last year, the utility serving thousands of homes in parts of Howard and Carroll counties and Western Maryland has asked regulators for permission to increase rates this spring --well before price caps expire. The idea, Allegheny Power says, is to impose two 15 percent surcharges and use the money plus interest to soften the blow for consumers when the company's price caps expire in 2009. Those affected will get a chance, starting this week, to offer their opinions on the plan to the state's Public Service Commission.

Allegheny Power Co. is returning to the Frederick County Board of Appeals in an effort to overturn a ruling that the utility build walls around a planned substation atop Parr's Ridge in Mount Airy.The utility filed an appeal last week, two days before the deadline to challenge a Jan. 8 county planning commission decision.The commission directed Allegheny Power to enclose its planned substation with masonry walls with brick veneer to hide most equipment from neighbors and motorists on Interstate 70. Plans for the substation have gone from the planning commission to the appeals board and back to the planning commission in the past 12 months.

The owner of a downtown Mount Airy building consumed in an blaze early Sunday announced plans last night to establish a temporary office park for the six destroyed Main Street businesses and several others that were damaged. Rob Scranton, who had renovated the 1930s-era Bohn Building, said trailers could be installed in the downtown parking lot as soon as next week by the same company that offered similar support to the town of La Plata after a tornado in 2002. "There's a lot of work to do in the coming days, months and into the next year," Scranton said at an emergency meeting convened at Mount Airy Town Hall.

The resignation of the chairman of Maryland's Public Service Commission, Kenneth D. Schisler, is a welcome, if overdue, event. Mr. Schisler's credibility had bottomed out quite some time ago, and his lingering presence on the board threatened some ugly legal machinations. And while Mr. Schisler's actions (or inactions) are hardly the primary reason Baltimore Gas and Electric customers are likely to face much higher electricity bills this summer, he clearly wasn't going to be part of any long-term solution.

Seeking to avoid the turmoil BGE underwent over plans to sharply raise electricity rates last year, the utility serving thousands of homes in parts of Howard and Carroll counties and Western Maryland has asked regulators for permission to increase rates this spring -- well before price caps expire. The idea, Allegheny Power says, is to impose two 15 percent surcharges and use the money plus interest to soften the blow for consumers when the company's price caps take effect in 2009. Those affected by the plan will get a chance starting this week to offer their opinions to the state's Public Service Commission.

Seeking to avoid the turmoil BGE underwent over plans to sharply raise electricity rates last year, the utility serving thousands of homes in parts of Howard and Carroll counties and Western Maryland has asked regulators for permission to increase rates this spring --well before price caps expire. The idea, Allegheny Power says, is to impose two 15 percent surcharges and use the money plus interest to soften the blow for consumers when the company's price caps expire in 2009. Those affected will get a chance, starting this week, to offer their opinions on the plan to the state's Public Service Commission.

There is one electrical plan guaranteed to save money regardless of what happens with the rate deferral fight dominating Maryland politics: conservation. With that in mind, BGE is sending representatives to the five Carroll County senior centers to provide tips on saving energy and money. In a recent visit to the Taneytown Senior Center, BGE energy educator Shelly Wortham held up inexpensive, energy-saving gadgets: foam to seal the cracks between windows and doors, outlet sealers, a jacket for the hot water heater.

Only a few days before Christmas, the little town of Lonaconing is not quite as merry as usual. And it's a lot less bright. While nearby towns sparkle with lights, this tiny coal-mining community in the mountains of Western Maryland lies still and sparsely decorated. Unless you count the blowup Grinch on Main Street. Some locals put up the Grinch as a prank - and a protest - after a utility pole dispute forced the town to abandon its 68-year tradition of stringing colored bulbs across Main Street.

Allegheny Power System doesn't have to enclose with walls a planned substation near Mount Airy, the Frederick County Board of Zoning Appeals has decided.But the board's decision this week may not have settled the issue of how to screen the 34.5-kilovolt substation from traffic on nearby Interstate 70 and homes in the Mill Bottom and Penn Shop Road areas.The utility plans to build the substation on Parr's Ridge, the highest point between the Catoctin Mountains and the Chesapeake Bay."I don't see what brick walls are going to solve in this particular site," said John R. Lovell Jr., appeals board chairman, before voting to approve a slatted fence and tree screening that Allegheny Power had agreed to earlier.

Allegheny Power Co. plans to fight a Frederick County decision that requires the utility to build walls around a proposed substation in Mount Airy, although an appeal will delay its ability to meet the area's growing power needs.The Frederick County Planning Commission voted Wednesday to require Allegheny Power to build walls to hide most equipment at its planned substation on Parrs Ridge, the highest point between the Catoctin Mountains and the Chesapeake Bay.Even with the screening, a 65-foot pole and other equipment would be visible from Interstate 70 and homes in the Mill Bottom and Penn Shop roads areas.

Electricity co-op plans sessions for potential members The Carroll County Chamber of Commerce Electricity Cooperative is working with the Taneytown and Mount Airy chambers to help businesses that receive energy from Allegheny Power. Information sessions will be held for businesses interested in joining the co-op in an effort to get the best price on energy when deregulation occurs. Businesses must be a member of one of the three chambers to join the co-op. Informational meetings for businesses that receive energy from Allegheny Power will be held as follows: Thursday from 3 p.m. to 5 p.m. at Taneytown Senior Center, 220 Roberts Mill Road.