LANSING, December 20.  The Michigan Public Service Commission today 
commenced the process to promulgate administrative rules for service quality 
and reliability standards for electric distribution systems as required by 
the Customer Choice and Electricity Reliability Act of 2000.   Under the Act, 
the Commission is directed to adopt service quality and reliability standards 
for the transmission and distribution systems of electric utilities including, 
but not limited to, standards for service outages, distribution facility 
upgrades, repairs and maintenance, telephone service, billing service, 
operational reliability, and public and worker safety.  The Commission will 
begin to draft proposed administrative rules for submission to the Office of 
Regulatory Reform for its review and approval.  The Commission will use draft 
standards announced in its July 11, 2001 order that proposed adoption of ten 
specific performance standards for electric distribution systems as well as 
comments received on these standards as a starting point in developing these 
rules.   

     Today's order also directed all electric utility companies under the 
Commission's authority to begin collecting data, effective January 1, 2002, on 
their performance in relation to the July 11 performance standards.  Companies 
must record the data on a monthly basis, including the 12-month rolling average, 
and submit it quarterly to MPSC staff.  The first report must be filed by 
April 30, 2002 for the January 1 through March 31, 2002 reporting period.   
Reports must include a chart indicating compliance or non-compliance for each 
standard. 

     The MPSC is an agency within the Department of Consumer and Industry 
Services.


Case No. U-12270 
December 20, 2001
(MPSC initiated rulemaking proceeding for service quality and reliability 
standards for electric distribution systems)