Seeking Safe Utilities

PARTICULARLY if you are looking for high yields, electric utility stocks may have a place among your investments provided you realize that the dividends are not certain and the stocks' prices are subject to swift change without notice. That is because volatile oil prices and the debate over nuclear power cause many electric utility stocks to be as risky as some high tech issues. Nuclear facilities are staggeringly expensive to build, and the Soviet disaster at Chernobyl will add fuel to efforts to stop the building of new ones. Whenever construction is halted, billions of dollars can be lost. Tampa Electric, and IPALCO Enterprises, which was formerly called Indianapolis Power & Light. Both of them have no nuclear plants and both are rapidly diversifying into other fields. TECO is expanding into coal mining and hauling, and IPALCO has acquired Indianapolis Cablevision.

Then there are the utilities that are already operating nuclear plants safely but have no plans to build more. Some of them that analysts have been recommending include Consolidated Edison in New York, Northern States Power, Wisconsin Energy, Wisconsin Public Service, Duke Power and Commonwealth Edison.