Experts Address Deregulation in a U.Va. Speakers Series
DEREGULATION COMES TO THE ELECTRIC POWER INDUSTRY 

	CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va., March 18 -- Electricity may be the most
common item consumed in the industrial world, with sales in the United
States alone exceeding $200 billion a year -- more than we spend on
cars, telephone calls or higher education.
	Electricity is essential to our modern economy, but its
production contributes to many of our greatest environmental hazards.
So, effective regulation and management of the electric power industry
is vital for our economic performance and environmental safety. 
	Until recently, consumers of electric power have had no
choices.  Their local utility companies provided electricity at prices
established by their state regulators.  But the same forces of
competition that transformed the airline, banking, and
telecommunications industries over the past two decades now are poised
to reshape the electricity industry. 
	The Technology Management and Policy program at the University
of Virginia, in cooperation with the Department of Government and
Foreign Affairs and the School of Engineering and Applied Science, is
sponsoring a series of talks by prominent participants in the
restructuring of the electric power industry.
	All of the talks will be on Thursday afternoons, from 12:30 to
1:45 p.m., in the Engineering School's Thornton Hall Room E303.  The
public is welcome.
	The speakers will be:
	¥ March 20 -- William E. Davis, chairman of the board and
chief executive officer of Niagara Mohawk Power Corp. Niagara Mohawk
is a utility based in Syracuse, N.Y., which provides electricity
service to more than 1.5 million customers in upstate New York.  It
has assets of more than $9 billion and annual operating revenues of
nearly $4 billion. 
	Before joining Niagara Mohawk three years ago, Davis held
positions with the New York State Energy Office, the New York State
Department of Commerce and the General Public Utilities Service Corp.
in Parsippany, N.J. 
	¥ March 27 -- William F. Stephens, director, Division of
Energy Regulation, Virginia State Corporation Commission. 
	¥ April 3 -- Sen. Jackson E. Reasor, Jr., chairman of the
Virginia General Assembly's Joint Subcommittee Examining the
Restructuring of the Electric Utility Industry in the Commonwealth of
Virginia. 
	¥ April 10 -- Matthew Holden, Jr., the Henry L. and Grace
M. Doherty Professor of Government and Foreign Affairs. Holden, who
specializes in public administration, was recently named to the U.S.
Department of Energy's Task Force on Electric System Reliability. 
	Holden is a former commissioner of the Federal Energy
Regulatory Commission (1977 81), a former commissioner of the Public
Service Commission of Wisconsin (1975-77), and currently serves as a
director of Atlantic Energy Inc., a major power company based in
Pleasantville, N.J. 
###
March 17, 1997
	For more information about the speakers series, call Paxton
Marshall, associate professor of electrical engineering, at (804)
924-3164, or contact him via e-mail at marshall@virginia.edu; or, call
Matthew Holden at (804) 924-3422 or via e-mail at mh3q@virginia.edu;
or Charlotte Crystal, public information officer, at (804) 924-6858.
Television reporters should call our TV News Office at (804) 924-7550.