Electric Light & Power articles from April 2003

Electric Light & Power archives from April 2003

From free-for-all to freefall: a look at energy trading from its glory days to its gory days.
April 1, 2003... Few people today, if asked to identify the most respected occupation, would choose energy traders. However, in spite of this perception, it's an occupation that won't be going away soon. With nearly one-half billion dollars at risk each day...

Ethics and leadership should be a cornerstone in the power business.
April 1, 2003... John Wooden once stated, "Ability may get you to the top, but it takes character to keep you there." It's advice every corporate executive should take to heart. Let's face it: Business is in trouble. Even the power industry, once one of...

A light at the end of the tunnel. (Commentary).(Federal Energy Regulatory Commission will investigate suppliers involved in California's summer of infamy)
April 1, 2003... I can't resist. Yes, for some companies just put on notice by FERC regarding their roles in the California summer of infamy (check out our cover story), that light may be an oncoming train. At a minimum, it's a searing interrogation lamp. ...

Exelon rejects offers. (Companies).(Exelon Generation Co., British Energy PLC terminate auction process for AmerGen Energy Co.)(Brief Article)
April 1, 2003... Exelon Generation Co. and British Energy have agreed to reject all offers for the purchase of AmerGen Energy Co. and to terminate the auction process. Both parties reviewed the bids and concluded none were "adequate." With the rejection of...

ComEd to contribute. (Companies).(Commonwealth Edison Co. will contribute $40 million to energy efficiency efforts)(Brief Article)
April 1, 2003... ComEd will contribute a total of $40 million to fund programs to boost energy efficiency in Chicago and the rest of Northeastern Illinois under an agreement reached between the company, the Citizens Utility Board and other consumer agencies....

TXU cuts management. (Companies).(Brief Article)
April 1, 2003... TXU has made management changes designed to reduce costs, streamline the organization and increase focus on the operations of its core businesses in North America, according to the company. In March, the company announced that it was in the...

Tetra Tech purchases portion of Foster Wheeler. (Mergers & Acquisitions).(Brief Article)
April 1, 2003... Foster Wheeler Ltd. announced the sale of the operating business of its wholly owned subsidiary, Foster Wheeler Environmental Corp. (FWENC), to Tetra Tech Inc. As of the close, the company received immediate net cash proceeds of approximately...

Wisconsin Power & Light requests increase. (Legal & Regulatory).(Brief Article)
April 1, 2003... Wisconsin Power & Light Co. filed a request with the Public Service Commission of Wisconsin for approval to increase overall retail base rates. The company is requesting an overall increase of $65.1 million or 6.62 percent. If the proposed rate...

PacifiCorp given OK. (Legal & Regulatory).(Brief Article)
April 1, 2003... Scottish Power announced that its U.S. subsidiary, PacifiCorp, was granted recovery of approximately $9 million of the company's $20 million general rate case request from the Wyoming Public Service Commission. As part of the proceedings, the...

CMS Energy Corp. (Executive Appointments).(Brief Article)
April 1, 2003... Belinda Foxworth was elected deputy general counsel.

El Paso Corp. (Executive Appointments).(Brief Article)
April 1, 2003... Clark Smith, formerly president of global power, will become president of trading. Robert Baker, formerly senior vice president and deputy general counsel, will be promoted to president of global power.

American Superconductor. (Executive Appointments).(Brief Article)
April 1, 2003... Stanley Piekos has resigned his position as senior vice president, finance and corporate development, and chief financial officer.

KEMA. (Executive Appointments).(Brief Article)
April 1, 2003... Dr. Ralph Masiello has joined the company as senior vice president of bulk power services.

Invensys. (Executive Appointments).(Brief Article)
April 1, 2003... Ryan Roberts has been appointed vice president and general manager of services for the company's manufacturing and process solutions business unit.

EPRI. (Executive Appointments).(Brief Article)
April 1, 2003... Dave Modeen is chief nuclear officer and vice president of the nuclear power sector.

An economist's advice to the industry: hammer out the rules and bump up the R&D. (View from the Top).
April 1, 2003... In this spot, we have dissected the industry from every interior point of view from regulator to company executive. This month, we move a bit outside of our typical box to discuss the power industry with economic policy consultant Dr. Susan...

Oh contraire. (Letters to the Editor).(Brief Article)
April 1, 2003... We read your article, Is deregulation dead? (Feb. 2003 EL&P), with genuine interest. On the whole, this is a good, thought-provoking article, which we appreciate. Mr. Valocchi, however, is quoted as saying that Michigan is one of a group of...

Taking a swing at deregulation. (Letters to the Editor).
April 1, 2003... EL&P's article, "Is deregulation dead?" (February 2003), could have been shortened to a single paragraph stating that deregulation is alive and well because trade industry publications and the robber barons who have made a killing from...

For the record. (Letters to the Editor).
April 1, 2003... The article entitled "Dissecting the North American market for distributed generation" that ran in the February 2003 issue did a good job of summarizing the DG technology options. However, it reinforced some common stereotypes and...

Ebb and flow aside, deregulation continues worldwide. (Executive Insights).
April 1, 2003... Wouldn't you have liked being a fly on the walls in the suites of top corporate executives charged the last two years with making sense out of a chaotic international phenomenon called utility deregulation? Lucky for us those opinions have...

Exclusive to EL&P; equity indices: electric/electric & gas combo index lags S&P 500 for 2003. (Finance).
April 1, 2003... EL&P introduces an exclusive monthly feature readers can use to follow the financial performance of electric/electric & gas utilities, merchant energy companies and local distribution companies (LDCs). Provided by The C Three Group LLC,...

Alliance forms to operate portfolio of power assets. (Finance).(Brief Article)
April 1, 2003... New York Miller, McConville, Christen, Hutchison & Waffel LLC (MMC) and Wood Group Power announced they have formed an alliance to operate a portfolio of power assets in North America. Under this alliance, MMC will be responsible for...

The homestretch for transmission policy changes: an update on the latest RTO developments and the standard market design. (Industry Report).
April 1, 2003... Two-and-a-half years have elapsed since the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) requested transmission owners to band together and create regional transmission organizations (RTOs) throughout the country. The boundaries of the RTOs have...

FAME releases data from New York & PJM ISOs. (E&GT Briefs).(Brief Article)
April 1, 2003... Fame Information Services Inc., provider of historical and reference data management solutions for the financial, energy and public sector markets, has expanded its coverage of energy market data with the release of data from both the New York...

Edison Mission Marketing & Trading selects OpenLink. (E&GT Briefs).(Brief Article)
April 1, 2003... Edison Mission Marketing & Trading (EMMT), Boston, provider of trading, risk management and operations software, has licensed Endur for the front- to back-office administration of power transactions, as well as natural gas and coal procurements...

ISO New England launches redesigned power market. (E&GT Briefs).(Brief Article)
April 1, 2003... ISO New England Inc. opened its redesigned wholesale power market in early March. The new method for buying and selling wholesale power is called Standard Market Design (SMD). SMD was a 22-month development effort that included developing...

UGI Corp. to buy TXU Energy's NE U.S. gas marketing business. (E&GT Briefs).(Brief Article)
April 1, 2003... UGI Corp. announced that its energy marketing subsidiary, UGI Energy Services Inc., has agreed to acquire the gas marketing business of TXU Energy serving the northeast region of the U.S. The transaction follows similar but smaller acquisitions...

Reliant Resources exits proprietary trading. (E&GT Briefs).(Brief Article)
April 1, 2003... Reliant Resources announced that as a result of the extreme volatility in natural gas prices in late February, the company incurred a significant trading loss. As a result, management made the decision to exit proprietary trading activities....

Dynegy exits communications. (E&GT Briefs).(Brief Article)
April 1, 2003... Dynegy Inc. announced an agreement to sell its North American communications business to an affiliate of 360networks Corp., a provider of data telecommunications services. The transaction is expected to close in April 2003. "Today's...

Alaska North Slope Gas producers discuss pipeline project. (E&GT Briefs).(Brief Article)
April 1, 2003... Exxon Mobil Corp., BP, and ConocoPhillips met with Alaska Gov. Frank Murkowski in late March to discuss plans for entering into negotiations regarding state fiscal certainty, as well as ways to reduce project cost and improve project viability...

Electricity information tracking systems and ISOs. (Transmission & Distribution).
April 1, 2003... As independent system operators (ISOs) grapple with the challenges of administering wholesale electricity markets in a manner consistent with reliability and open access, they are also becoming increasingly involved in the development and...

Making data security an IT priority. (Information Technology Customer Systems).
April 1, 2003... Utility CIOs understand the urgency behind protecting their organization's information technology (IT) assets, but data security still hasn't received the funding it deserves from the executive team. According to AMR Research, security claimed...

Accenture, BC Hydro shake on it. (IT/CS Briefs).(Brief Article)
April 1, 2003... Accenture and BC Hydro signed a 10-year agreement valued at nearly $1 billion designed to save BC Hydro customers $250 million CDN and expand Accenture's ability to offer customer relationship management, IT, human resources, financial,...

Southern Co. to offer online services for customers. (IT/CS Briefs).(Brief Article)
April 1, 2003... Southern Co. has launched its Energy Check Up online application for the residential customers of its five Southeastern utilities: Alabama Power, Georgia Power, Gulf Power, Mississippi Power and Savannah Electric. Southern Company selected...

META Group predicts spending growth. (IT/CS Briefs).(Brief Article)
April 1, 2003... META Group stated that the Group expects energy utilities to increase their current and planned investments in work management systems as they refocus their efforts on the fundamentals of their business. Their METAspectrum evaluation found: ...

Chartwell report tracks customer billing and payment. (IT/CS Briefs).(Brief Article)
April 1, 2003... According to Chartwell's "Guide to Bill Presentment and Payment 2003," more than four million U.S. utility customers now pay their energy bills online--while about four times that number allow their utility to debit their bank accounts. The...

GE awarded NPPD contract. (IT/CS Briefs).(Brief Article)
April 1, 2003... GE Network Solutions, a supplier of technology solutions to the utilities industry, has been awarded a multi-million dollar contract by the Nebraska Public Power District (NPPD) for the implementation of the Smallworld core spatial technology...

Sacramento chooses Group 1. (IT/CS Briefs).(Brief Article)
April 1, 2003... Group 1 Software announced that the City of Sacramento, Calif., has selected Group l's DOC1 Suite to design and generate its utility bills. The city has licensed the document composition components of the DOC1 suite, which enable users to...

Navigant, Ecteon to offer software. (IT/CS Briefs).(Brief Article)
April 1, 2003... Navigant Consulting Inc. and Ecteon announced a joint marketing agreement to offer contract management software and services to utility customers. According to the companies, Ecteon has developed a contract management software system that...

Oakville Hydra selects Harris. (IT/CS Briefs).(Brief Article)
April 1, 2003... Oakville Hydro Electricity Distribution has chosen Harris Computer Systems' PUBS v5.2 solution to replace their current customer service and billing system. Since the deregulated electricity market opened in Ontario in May 2002, Oakville Hydro...

Exelon Nuclear selects ProcessNet. (IT/CS Briefs).(Brief Article)
April 1, 2003... Matrikon Inc. announced that Exelon Nuclear has selected ProcessNet and EnterpriseNet as enterprise tools for data access, visualization and analysis to improve system performance monitoring. ProcessNet enables users to collaborate via the Web...

Are you a help or a hinderance? (Management Methods).(Brief Article)
April 1, 2003... Although it probably doesn't appear on your job description, one of your responsibilities is to be helpful to others. The recipient of your help may be your boss, a colleague or a subordinate, someone who will depend on you for help at some...

Route to the top: seek out responsibility. (Management Methods).(Brief Article)
April 1, 2003... The average reaction to a new assignment is, "Why me?" Fear of failure temporarily paralyzes initiative; self-doubt sets in. But why be average? Seek out responsibility and you immediately do three things. You announce your...

Tips on hiring key people. (Management Methods).(Brief Article)
April 1, 2003... Here are some suggested questions to answer before you decide on hiring, promoting or selecting someone for an important job: * What is the exact position I want to fill or the assignment I want carried out? * What are important...

Primer on water treatment technology and power generation. (Power Pointers).
April 1, 2003... What factors impact the water treatment market in power generation? The overall market is in transition. It is still absorbing the effect of capital crunch brought on by the combination of economic slowdown and the Enron effect. Most...

On borrowed dime: the credit crunch hits the gas pipeline industry. (Benefit of Counsel).
April 1, 2003... The credit crunch currently facing the energy industry shows no signs of abating. Rating downgrades and bankruptcy proceedings dominate energy news. Standard & Poor's reports that it downgraded 182 investor-owned utilities in 2002--a trend that...

Clean-energy futures: from niche to mass market. (generation).
April 1, 2003... It is, at once, an exciting and confounding time for clean energy. In a world buffeted by the challenges of national security, global climate change, and sluggish economies, clean-energy technologies such as solar, wind, and hydrogen-based...

Companies are Mexico-bound. (Briefs: Generation).(Brief Article)
April 1, 2003... ALSTOM has been awarded a 12-year operation support and maintenance contract for the 1,000 MW Monterrey Ill gas-fired combined-cycle plant in Mexico. The contract covers operation support and all scheduled and unscheduled maintenance of the...

Animal waste to produce power. (Briefs: Generation).(Brief Article)
April 1, 2003... Environmental Power Corp., through its subsidiary Microgy Cogeneration Systems Inc. has executed a letter of intent with Dairyland Power Cooperative to create a strategic alliance to deploy animal waste to energy systems on dairy and swine...

Capstone is certified. (Briefs: Generation).(Brief Article)
April 1, 2003... Capstone Turbine announced that its C60 product is a mechanical power generation product now state-certified to meet California's stringent new distributed generation emissions standards that went into effect Jan. 1, 2003.

ICP Global Technologies signs deal. (Briefs: Generation).(Brief Article)
April 1, 2003... ICP, a manufacturer of solar products for consumers, signed an exclusive licensing agreement with Global Solar Energy, a developer of next-generation flexible copper indium gallium diselenide (CIGS) solar cells. The agreement includes...

New reactor head installed. (Briefs: Generation).(Brief Article)
April 1, 2003... FirstEnergy Nuclear Operating Co. announced that personnel at the Davis-Besse Nuclear Power Station are completing installation of the new reactor head on the reactor vessel. In March, crews moved the 150-ton reactor head and its attached...

Bachmann Dampjoint wins Ontario contract. (Briefs: Generation).(Brief Article)
April 1, 2003... Bachman Dampjoint Inc. of Pointe Claire (Montreal), Quebec has been selected as the preferred supplier for the Selective Catalytic Reduction (SCR) multi-port isolation damper systems for Naticoke and Lambton SCR projects. Two SCR units are...

Fuel cell powers Mickey D's. (Briefs: Generation).(Brief Article)
April 1, 2003... At a McDonald's restaurant partially powered by a Plug Power fuel cell, the Long Island Power Authority (LIPA) announced that it will purchase an additional 45 fuel cell systems for installation across Long Island this year, even installing...

GE to supply turbines. (Briefs: Generation).(Brief Article)
April 1, 2003... GE Wind Energy will supply 80 wind turbines for a new, 120 MW facility in California's Mojave Desert that will be the first wind project for the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power. The Pine Tree Wind Project is expected to be completed...

Consortium to control pollution. (Briefs: Generation).(Duke/Fluor Daniel and Babcock Borsig Power will provide engineering work at LG&E Energy's Ghent Power Generating Plant)(Brief Article)
April 1, 2003... A consortium of Duke/Fluor Daniel and Babcock Borsig Power Inc. will provide engineering, procurement, construction and commissioning services for selective catalytic reduction systems (SCR) for units one, three and four of LG&E Energy Corp.'s...

Westinghouse receives order. (Briefs: Generation).(Brief Article)
April 1, 2003... Westinghouse Electric Co.'s nuclear fuel unit has received an order for 185 control rods from Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) for Browns Ferry in Huntsville, Ala. The order adds to a previous long-term contract with TVA to supply control rods...

Calendar.(Brief Article)(Calendar)
April 1, 2003... EVENTS APRIL 23-24 Homeland Security Solutions Show PennWell Confs. & Exhibitions (603/891-9267) www.homelandsecuritysolutionsshow.com Baltimore MAY 4 Introduction to Emissions Trading Emissions...