Power Firms Given OK for Common System

Federal regulators gave their approval to California’s three largest utilities--Pacific Gas & Electric Co., Edison International and Enova Corp.--to convert their power lines into a common system to help establish a spot electricity market, a cornerstone of the power deregulation law signed last month by Gov. Pete Wilson. The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission said it would accept California regulators’ decision about which of the utilities’ assets fall under state jurisdiction as local distribution networks and which are considered transmission facilities and fall into FERC jurisdiction. Regulators decided last spring to require utilities to separate their two main products--the production of electricity and the transmission of the power--as a way of ending the utilities’ monopolistic hold on power and encouraging competition.