PSC: Public will have say in Hudson Valley utility’s sale – Elmira Star

ALBANY — The state Public Service Commission today vowed to undertake a thorough review and offer public participation in the potential sale of CH Energy Group to a Canadian utility company.

The Canada utility company Fortis Inc. announced plans today to acquire CH Energy Group, the parent company of the Poughkeepsie-based Central Hudson Gas Electric, in a deal worth $1.5 billion.

Central Hudson was founded in 1900 and serves about 300,000 electric customers and 75,000 natural-gas customers in the mid-Hudson Valley. The company said its service area runs from western Putnam County to the southern part of Albany County and includes the cities of Newburgh, Poughkeepsie and Kingston.

The Public Service Commission would conduct an arduous review of the sale once it is filed with the state regulatory agency, said spokesman James Denn.

“Once a petition is filed, it will be thoroughly reviewed to ensure that the transaction is in the best interests of the ratepayer,” Denn said in a telephone interview.

He said the first step would likely be to set up a schedule for the review to take place. That would likely include the appointment of an administrative judge to oversee the analysis of the company’s application.

The process would also include public hearings and the opportunity for interested parties to submit evidence to the commission, which oversees the state’s public utilities.

“There will be an opportunity for the public and interested parties to comment on the proposal once it’s submitted,” Denn said.

While the commission takes 11 months on average to review a utility’s application for a rate change, it is unclear how long the sale of a utility would take. Ultimately, it would be up to the five-member commission to approve, modify or reject the sale, Denn said.

The companies said today that the merger deal is expected to take about a year and likely close in the first quarter of 2013.

The last sale of a public utility in New York was in September 2008. The commission approved Iberdrola SA’s purchase of Energy East Corp., which owned New York State Electric Gas Corp and Rochester Gas Electric.

The $4.5 billion sale to the Spanish company took more than a year and included a number of conditions imposed by the Public Service Commission. The stipulations included paying $275 million to RGE and NYSEG ratepayers and agreeing to invest at least $200 million in wind-power projects in the state.