The Regulatory Mix, TMI’s daily blog of regulatory activities, is a snapshot of PUC, FCC, legislative, and occasionally court, issues that our regulatory monitoring team uncovers each day. Depending on their significance, some items may be the subject of a TMI Regulatory Bulletin.
TELECOM
FCC
The FCC released its annual circuit status report for U.S facilities-based international common carriers. The 2012 report shows the use of U.S.-international facilities for international telephone calls, private line services and other services from the United States grew by 34% from 2011 to 2012. The reported number of activated 64 Kbps equivalent circuits at the end of 2012 totaled 38.6 million circuits, as compared to 28.8 million circuits in 2011. 61 carriers that filed circuit status reports of which 58 carriers reported activated or idle capacity in 2012. The shows the top 30 destinations by circuits. The top 30 destinations accounted for 98.8 percent of the total U.S.-activated circuits at year-end 2012, with the United Kingdom, Japan, Denmark, Germany, and Canada as the top five destinations. The report includes data on undersea cable circuits, satellite circuits, terrestrial circuits, combined transmission circuits, and the percentage of circuits by service type (IMTS, Private Lines, and Other International Services) for each region, from 2009 to 2012.
ENERGY
Michigan
The PSC directed Wisconsin Electric Power Company (WEPCo) to file additional documentation by June 2 and to “show cause” why it failed to comply with the PSC’s December 19, 2013, order that required regulated electric utilities to file assessments of their ability to meet customers’ electric requirements for 2014 through 2016. The additional information should include any plans to retrofit the Presque Isle Power Plant (PIPP) to meet the upcoming emission standards under the EPA’s Mercury and Air Toxics Standards rules or plans to add generation in the constrained region to provide adequate reliability, which may afford assurance to the PSC that Michigan customers will continue to be provided with electric service. Regarding plans to retrofit the PIPP, the PSC directs WEPCo to include details regarding the type of technology for the retrofit, the estimated cost, the timing to start and complete the retrofit, an outline of test plans to evaluate the effectiveness of the retrofit at meeting the standards, as well as contingent plans, should testing prove to be unsuccessful.
