DR 98-096
                                     
                       CONCORD ELECTRIC COMPANY AND 
                     EXETER & HAMPTON ELECTRIC COMPANY
                                     
                        Fuel Adjustment Clause and 
                      Purchased Power Adjustment Clause                                                     Order Granting Concord Electric Company and 
                Exeter & Hampton's Motion for Confidential 
                     Treatment of Certain Information
                                     
                          O R D E R   N O. 22,985
                                     
                               July 21, 1998
     
         On June 18, 1998, Concord Electric Company (CEC) and 
     Exeter & Hampton Electric Company (E&H) filed with the New
     Hampshire Public Utilities Commission (Commission) a Motion for
     Protective Order (Motion) with respect to certain confidential
     information.  Specifically, CEC and E&H request that the
     following information pertaining to themselves, or to their
     wholesale power affiliate, Unitil Power Corp. (Unitil, or
     together with CEC and E&H, the Companies), be treated as
     confidential, and not be made part of the public record in this
     docket: all information filed in response to data requests in
     this proceeding, and in-hearing oral questions and responses in
     this proceeding related to the Companies' mitigation of purchased
     power contracts and any negotiations related to such mitigation.
     The Companies intend to make such information available to the
     Commission Staff (Staff) under this requested protective order.
         The Companies have received data requests and likely
     may receive in-hearing questions from Staff that request
     confidential information regarding Unitil's efforts to
     renegotiate and mitigate costs under certain purchased power
     contracts.  The Companies aver this information is commercially
     sensitive and proprietary in nature and/or constitutes trade
     secrets.  Disclosure of this information to a potential
     competitor or to the public would harm the Companies' interests
     and those of the Companies' ratepayers.  The Companies state they
     do not disclose this confidential information to anyone outside
     of their corporate affiliates and the Companies' attorneys and
     representatives.
         The Commission recognizes that the information 
     identified above is the type of information which was anticipated
     would be protected when N.H. Admin. Rules, Puc 204.06 was
     adopted.  The Commission also recognizes that the information
     contained in the filing is sensitive commercial information in a
     competitive market.  Thus, based on the representations of the
     Companies, under the balancing test we have applied in prior
     cases, e.g., Re New England Telephone & Telegraph Company
     (Auditel), 80 NHPUC 437 (1995); Re Bell Atlantic, Order No.
     22,851 (February 17, 1998); Re Energynorth Natural Gas, Inc., 
     Order No. 22,859 (February 24, 1998) we find that the benefits to
     the Companies of non-disclosure in this case outweigh the
     benefits to the public of disclosure.  The information,
     therefore, is exempt from public disclosure pursuant to RSA
     91-A:5,IV and N.H. Admin. Rules, Puc 204.06.
         Based upon the foregoing, it is hereby
         ORDERED, that Concord Electric Company's and 
     Exeter & Hampton Electric Company's Motion for Protective Order
     concerning information regarding the Companies, filed on June 18,
     1998, is GRANTED; and it is
         FURTHER ORDERED, that this Order is subject to the
     ongoing rights of the Commission, on its own motion or on the
     motion of Staff, any party or any other member of the public, to
     reconsider this Order in light of RSA 91-A, should circumstances
     so warrant.
     
         By order of the Public Utilities Commission of New
     Hampshire this twenty-first day of July, 1998.         
     
                                                                     
        Douglas L. Patch    Bruce B. Ellsworth        Susan S. Geiger
            Chairman           Commissioner            Commissioner
     
     
     Attested by:
     
     
     
                                      
     Thomas B. Getz
     Executive Director and Secretary