Electric Light & Power articles from April 2001

Electric Light & Power archives from April 2001

High court labels EPA implementation "unlawful".(Environmental Protection Agency)(Brief Article)(Statistical Data Included)
April 1, 2001... The U.S. Supreme Court handed manufacturers, including power plants, a defeat in upholding the Environmental Protection Agency's (EPA) authority to set clean air standards without regard to cost. But the court also found EPA exceeded its...

eMarkets await suppliers' verdict.(electronic commerce)(Statistical Data Included)
April 1, 2001... The statistics are staggering. Cap Gemini Ernst & Young estimate that e-commerce in the energy industry will explode from an $11 billion launching pad in 1999 to a $170 billion estimate for 2003. With such bold numbers being batted around, the...

HE'LL LIGHT UP YOUR LIFE.(Robert Krampf, Mr. Electricity)(Brief Article)
April 1, 2001... "Mr. Electricity," Robert Krampf, demonstrates one of his most popular stunts. As he squats barefoot in a pan of water attached to a one million volt Tesla coil, high frequency electricity flows over his skin and leaps from the metal glove and...

California springs into blackouts, questions linger.(Brief Article)(Column)
April 1, 2001... If you're like me, there are times when you tire of hearing and reading about the California energy crisis. However, you remain aware of it--somewhere on the periphery--not quite able to ignore it for long. As in rush-hour traffic's morbid...

Washington Group cries fraud.(Washington Group International)(Brief Article)
April 1, 2001... Washington Group International has filed suit against Raytheon Co. and Raytheon Engineers & Constructors International Inc. alleging fraud and seeking rescission and unspecified damages for breach of contract in the company's July 2000...

Northeast Utilities sues ConEd.(Consolidated Edison Inc.)(Brief Article)
April 1, 2001... Northeast Utilities has filed suit against Consolidated Edison Inc. seeking damages in excess of $1 billion arising from Con Edison's breach of the merger agreement between the two companies. Northeast Utilities alleged that Con Edison had...

Eight want to join MISO.(Midwest Independent Transmission System Operator Inc.)(Brief Article)
April 1, 2001... Eight utilities have submitted conditional applications to join the Midwest Independent Transmission System Operator Inc. (MISO). Indianapolis Power and Light Co., Indiana Municipal Power Agency, Lincoln (Neb.) Electric System, Minnesota Power,...

BPA inks agreement.(Bonneville Power Administration and McCook Metals Group)(Brief Article)
April 1, 2001... Bonneville Power Administration (BPA) and McCook Metals Group, an aluminum plate company producing specialty products for aircraft, aerospace and defense industries, have signed an agreement allowing BPA to purchase 420 average MW of power from...

UtiliCorp to buy wind.(UtiliCorp United to buy wind power)(Brief Article)
April 1, 2001... UtiliCorp United will provide its Kansas and Missouri electric customers power from a 110 MW wind farm being constructed near Montezuma, Kan., by FPL Energy LLC. Eighty MW will be provided to customers in UtiliCorp's regulated service areas....

Babcock & Wilcox awarded contract.(by Independent Energy Group)(Brief Article)
April 1, 2001... A subsidiary of the Independent Energy Group of Black Hills Corp. has awarded a contract valued in excess of $100 million to Babcock & Wilcox Co. a subsidiary of McDermott International Inc. Babcock & Wilcox will engineer, design, procure and...

Cinergy, BP finalize agreement.(Cinergy Solutions Inc. and British Petroleum Company PLC)(Brief Article)
April 1, 2001... Cinergy Solutions Inc., a Cinergy Corp. affiliate specializing in cogeneration and energy outsourcing, has finalized an energy services agreement with BP to construct, own and operate two natural gas cogeneration projects in Texas. Combined,...

Reliant Energy to build clean coal plant.(Reliant Energy Seward L.L.C.)(Brief Article)
April 1, 2001... Reliant Energy Seward LLC, an unregulated unit of Reliant Energy's Wholesale Group, is planning to build a power generation plant in western Pennsylvania using circulating fluidized bed clean-coal technology. The new 520 MW facility will be...

MERGERS, ACQUISITIONS.(Brief Article)
April 1, 2001... Energy East combines with RGS: Energy East Corp. and RGS Energy Group Inc. have made a definitive merger agreement under which all of the outstanding shares of RGS Energy will be exchanged for a combination of cash and Energy East stock valued...

Public Service Company of New Mexico.(Brief Article)
April 1, 2001... Standard & Poor's said that its ratings (BBB-) and outlook (Watch Neg) of Public Service Company of New Mexico will not be affected by legislation passed in the state delaying deregulation until 2007.

PBR delivers maximum benefits.(performance-based regulation)
April 1, 2001... Performance-based regulation (PBR) was introduced as an alternative to cost-of-service regulation in the U.S. electricity sector in the late 1980s and early 1990s. The primary objective of PBR is to inject competitive market incentives into...

Deloitte Research presents findings, promotes scenarios for execs.(Brief Article)(Statistical Data Included)
April 1, 2001... How will the utility sector evolve when uncertainty abounds, with deregulation government reevaluation of energy policies and dynamic corporate strategies. Decision-makers are at a crossroads that will take utilities through the decade, amid...

S&P frowns at implications of Calif. crisis.(Standard & Poor's, California power crisis)(Brief Article)
April 1, 2001... Standard & Poor's (S&P) report, "Potential Spillover Effects of the California Power Crisis on Municipal Credits," laid out future implications of the state's power problems. Issued in mid-March, the report reinforced S&P's January rating of...

Home-grown? Consumers show increasing interest in generating electricity.(Brief Article)
April 1, 2001... In step with the reality of rolling electrical blackouts in California, a new national survey finds measurable interest among affluent U.S. consumers in generating their own electricity at home. As technical advances bring smaller, quieter...

Utilities boost IT spending as confidence in technology grows.
April 1, 2001... Spending on IT systems by utilities is relatively meager--less than 5 percent of revenues--when compared to industries such as telecommunications, where IT spending approaches 25 percent of revenues, according to Gartner Group figures. This...

Managing weather risk requires faith in the forecast.(Brief Article)
April 1, 2001... Weathermen titled it the "Storm of the Century." Airports cancelled flights at its mere mention. Schools closed. Businesses hunkered down. And power companies prepped crews for the worst. But the worst never came, symbolizing the inherent...

Wind remains renewable 'golden boy'.(renewable energy source)(Brief Article)(Statistical Data Included)
April 1, 2001... For a power source that generates only 0.1 percent of electricity in the United States (according to Energy Information Administration numbers from 1999), wind turbines get a whole lot of attention. And with the demise of the federal tax credit...

Fuel cells poised to strut into power market.
April 1, 2001... When Sir William Grove stumbled across the technology for fuel cells in 1839, he probably never dreamed it would take over a century before his discovery really began to make waves. (See sidebar.) Almost 200 years after Grove's discovery, fuel...

PanCanadian selects Henwood.
April 1, 2001... PanCanadian Energy Services selected Henwood Energy Services Inc. to provide its EnerPrise software applications to support their electricity trading and retail operations. Henwood's integrated solutions include a retail-to-wholesale energy...

TradeSpark details volumes.(since 2000)(Brief Article)(Statistical Data Included)
April 1, 2001... TradeSpark's fully electronic energy trading marketplace powered by eSpeedsm has traded over $16 billion worth (notional value) of energy products since trading began on Oct. 2, 2000. Since last October, the electronic marketplace has traded...

USI powered by eBidenergy.com.(UtiliMan Systems Inc. has licensing agreement with eBidenergy.com)(Brief Article)
April 1, 2001... eBidenergy.com, application service provider (ASP) of online energy procurement, signed a licensing agreement with energy management company UtiliMan Systems Inc. (USI) granting rights to USI to use both the bid-based and RFP (request for...

WSI adds west coast and TX.(Brief Article)
April 1, 2001... WSI Corp. expanded Energycast PowerTrader and Energycast GasTrader services to the West Coast and Texas market areas. Already covering the Northeast and Southeast energy pool areas, the Internet- accessible, trader-centric weather forecasting...

Retx and Apogee address crisis.(Brief Article)
April 1, 2001... Retx Inc. and Apogee Interactive Inc. formed a strategic alliance to seamlessly provide a range of electric load management solutions addressing the nation's electricity crisis. As a part of the strategic alliance, the companies will work...

Weathernomics beats the average.(Brief Article)
April 1, 2001... Planalytics Inc.'s Weathernomics Gas Buyer, a Web-delivered risk management tool for purchasing and hedging natural gas, beat the average month-end settlement price by $0.72 per MMBtu over the last 12 months. For April 2000 through March 2001...

Trade-Ranger outsources back office.(Brief Article)
April 1, 2001... PricewaterhouseCoopers' Business Process Outsourcing group will establish and manage the back-office finance and accounting operations and information technology needed to support the operations of Trade-Ranger, the Internet marketplace...

EC Power wins DISA award.(Brief Article)
April 1, 2001... EC Power, provider of electronic transaction management services for the energy and natural gas industries, was selected as the winner of the Data Interchange Standards Association (DISA) E-Business Enterprise (EBE) Award. The award, given to...

Nexus Energyguide acquires UtilityGuide.com.(Brief Article)
April 1, 2001... Nexus Energyguide, the operator of ENERGYguide.com, a Web energy resource for consumers and small businesses, has purchased the UtilityGuide.com Web site. With the purchase, Nexus Energyguide has acquired UtilityGuide's content, functionality,...

Unigridenergy adds Demand Exchange.(Brief Article)
April 1, 2001... UniGridEnergy will add Demand Exchange to its array of services by the end of the first quarter. The Demand Exchange allows energy buyers to take advantage of high market prices by reducing their demand and receiving payments for the...

FEA and FAME form alliance.(Brief Article)
April 1, 2001... Financial Engineering Associates Inc. (FEA) is forming an alliance with FAME Information Services Inc. to deliver a comprehensive analytical solution that combines quantitative risk analytics with quality market data for the global energy,...

Retx allies with Pentech.(Brief Article)
April 1, 2001... Retx Inc. and Pentech Solutions Inc. will promote each other's products to give their customers a full market solution to automatically reduce energy consumption and benefit from energy price volatility. Each company delivers application...

IntercontinentalExchange sets record.(Brief Article)
April 1, 2001... IntercontinentalExchange (ICE), a marketplace for over-the-counter energy and metals products, set single day trading records Feb. 27, on ICE in both the global oil and U.S. power markets. Record trading volume in U.S. power markets on ICE...

Mitsubishi considers Textron plant.(Brief Article)
April 1, 2001... Under a contract with Trammell Crow Co., Mitsubishi Heavy Industries America will evaluate the former Textron Turbine Engine Components facility in Orlando Central Park as a possible future home for its power generation service and repair...

Vericor offers OnsitePower.(Brief Article)
April 1, 2001... Vericor Power Systems now offers OnsitePower systems, solutions that provide power, steam, hot or chilled water to industrial companies. Vericor Power Systems will build, own and operate OnsitePower gas turbine-based power plants at the point...

AWEA finds wind energy expanding.(Brief Article)(Statistical Data Included)
April 1, 2001... The worldwide boom in wind energy slowed a bit during the year 2000, but still remained strong, with some 3,500 MW installed--enough to supply roughly 1.3 million California households--according to the American Wind Energy Association (AWEA)....

DOE engages Honeywell.(Brief Article)
April 1, 2001... The Department of Energy's (DOE) National Energy Technology Laboratory has selected Honeywell International of Torrance, Calif., to begin the first stages of development for a new type of planar solid oxide fuel cell hybrid system. This is the...

AEP supports EEC.(Brief Article)
April 1, 2001... AEP will employ Environmental Elements Corp.'s. (EEC) Ammonia on Demand (AOD) technology to achieve federally mandated reductions in [NO.sub.x] emissions at the company's Gen. James M. Gavin power plant at Cheshire, Ohio. The agreement...

Aquila purchases 10 turbines.(Aquila Inc.)(Brief Article)
April 1, 2001... Aquila Inc., subsidiary of UtiliCorp United will buy 10 more turbines from General Electric. Combined with other orders, in the past 12 months Aquila has ordered a total of 21 turbines. The newly ordered units, each capable of producing 85 MW,...

PSEG Nuclear goes with Sargent & Lundy.(Sargent and Lundy L.L.C.)(Brief Article)
April 1, 2001... PSEG Nuclear is partnering with Sargent & Lundy LLC for engineering services. The agreement calls for virtually all of PSEG Nuclear's design work and technical support activities not directly supporting workweek activities to be assigned to...

Superconducting material discovered.(magnesium diboride.)(Brief Article)
April 1, 2001... American Superconductor, Corp., developer and manufacturer of high temperature superconducting (HTS) wires for electric power applications, recently discovered a new superconducting material, magnesium diboride. Most applications for...

Looking at the future of energy delivery IT design, strategy.(high technology forecasts)
April 1, 2001... Deregulation and growing competition are driving utilities to enhance the business of energy delivery as a means to improve customer satisfaction and confidence, as well as shareholder value. There is also increased scrutiny of all technology...

ABB offers new platform.(ABB Asea Brown Boveri Ltd.)(Brief Article)
April 1, 2001... ABB Energy information Systems Division (EIS) developed a new software platform for electric power central markets and for regional transmission operators. The product, Sable, is an open, Internet-focused e-business platform that is...

Apex Geospatial puts GIS online.(Apex Geospatial Data Services)(online geographic information systems)(Brief Article)
April 1, 2001... Apex Geospatial Data Services (Apex Geospatial), provider of intelligent, enterprise-wide spatial data solutions for the utility, telecommunications, local government, and private industry markets, has expanded its service offerings to include...

Server farms impact utilities.(energy usage)(Brief Article)
April 1, 2001... The growth of Internet data centers--buildings that house computer servers and networking equipment--was the focus of a conference hosted by Edison Electric Institute. The event was the first gathering of electric utilities, zoning officials,...

CYME enhances software.(CYME International Inc.)(Brief Article)
April 1, 2001... CYME International enhanced its distribution analysis software by adding predictive reliability assessment. The program computes predictive reliability indices for the overall system and computes customer point indices such as frequency of...

Westinghouse gets Ovation.(Brief Article)
April 1, 2001... Westinghouse Process Control Inc. completed a power plant process control system modernization ensuring a plant in Los Angeles County would be a reliable source of power. Tractebel Electricity & Gas International's San Gabriel facility planned...

Bandwidth as a commodity: fate or fancy?
April 1, 2001... Bandwidth means how fast data flows on a transmission path. Broadband refers to telecommunication that provides multiple channels of data over a single medium. In the past, communications engineers sought to minimize bandwidth but maintain...

CMS satisfies.(CMS Marketing, Services and Trading)(Brief Article)
April 1, 2001... CMS Energy Corp.'s energy marketing unit, CMS Marketing, Services and Trading, was ranked first in customer satisfaction among the 68 largest natural gas marketing companies in the U.S. by an independent study. The study, by Mastio & Co.,...

Vectren gains CLEC licenses.(Vectren Communications Services)(competitive local exchange carrier)(Brief Article)
April 1, 2001... Vectren Communications Services (VCS) has been licensed as a competitive local exchange carrier (CLEC) in the states of California, Iowa, Oregon, Texas and Washington. In addition to the five states that have been approved, VCS has another CLEC...

Entergy launches electronic billing.(Brief Article)
April 1, 2001... Entergy Corp. launched its electronic billing payment program through Check-Free i-Solutions. Entergy customers can view bills on demand and review account balances with full bill detail from personal computers. Consumers approve electronic...

ConneXt enhances C&I billing.(Brief Article)
April 1, 2001... ConneXt, a Seattle-based software developer of billing and customer care solutions for the utility industry, entered a joint marketing agreement with Silicon Energy and Enermetrix. This partnership allows ConneXt to deliver a commercial and...

EnerCheck signals consumers.(Brief Article)
April 1, 2001... WeatherWise USA has developed a service called EnerCheck that will provide energy consumers with a clear signal of their energy efficiency efforts. EnerCheck will also help energy providers implement and expand energy conservation programs. The...

ERCOT contracts TFCC.(Twenty First Century Communications, Electricity Reliability Council of Texas)(Brief Article)
April 1, 2001... Ohio-based Twenty First Century Communications (TFCC) will assist the Electricity Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT) in efforts associated with the restructuring of the electric utility industry in Texas. Major criteria of the program under...

Toronto Hydro licenses DocuCorp solution.(Brief Article)
April 1, 2001... Toronto Hydra-Electric System Limited will license DocuCorp's software solution to enable Internet presentation of utility bills. The City of Toronto, Canada's largest municipality, owns Toronto Hydra, which provides services to 650,000...

SCANA signs up for BillGen.(Brief Article)
April 1, 2001... SCANA Corp., a major Southeastern electric and gas utility, has contracted for BillGen, a new complex billing and rates management software solution from SCT, a global provider of e-business solutions. The contract is among the first for the...

ETPR SYSTEM.(Encoderless Tap Position Reporting)(Brief Article)
April 1, 2001... Second Wind Inc, a provider of supervisory monitoring and control solutions, announced the availability of its Encoderless Tap Position Reporting (ETPR) System at Distribu-TECH 2001. This software extension to the company's Phaser and...

PROTECTIVE SHELVING.(Brief Article)
April 1, 2001... ESD shelving combines the static-dissipating properties of electrically conductive particleboard (ECP) with 14 gauge galvanized steel uprights and beams. It can be used to store electronic products without worry about static electricity...

VTS SCADA SYSTEM.(visual tag system supervisory control and data acquisition)(Brief Article)
April 1, 2001... The visual tag system (VTS) supervisory control and data acquisition (SCADA) system combines a Windows-based PC compatible central station computer with an unlimited number of verbatim RTUs. This industrial SCADA system provides a wide range of...

DEMAND METER.(Brief Article)
April 1, 2001... Pro-MON, a new three-phase kWh/kW submeter, features on-board communications, 15-minute interval load profiling and other functional upgrades over base models, including a new four-line by 20-character back-lighted LCD readout, installed...

CORRECTION CAPACITOR.(Brief Article)
April 1, 2001... The GEMATIC automated low voltage capacitor has been redesigned. The multi-step power factor control equipment automatically maintains the desired power factor level, adjusting to system load requirements in selected kvar steps. The GEMATIC...

COMPENSATION DEVICE.(Brief Article)
April 1, 2001... The new DVR MV Mod 5 series compensation device from Siemens Power Transmission & Distribution delivers more than twice the power electronics in the same footprint as its predecessor. The medium voltage DVR MV Mod 5 configuration provides...

TEAMWORK: HOW TO GET IT.(Brief Article)
April 1, 2001... If you aspire to managing a true team, and not simply a collection of rugged individualists who happen to work near each other, here are some of the things you should do. * Emphasize team goals. Be sure that each of your people understands...

ARE YOU WASTING YOUR PEOPLE'S TIME?(Brief Article)
April 1, 2001... Few managers believe that they can possibly be the cause of wasted time, but it's often the case. The boss who keeps people waiting to see him, or who drops in to discuss unimportant things, or considers breathing down an employee's neck a...