Electric Light & Power articles from August 2002

Electric Light & Power archives from August 2002

Proponents of demand response trace its industry lifeline.
August 1, 2002... In these days of round-trip trading and customer uncertainty, reliability and price stability are more important than ever. One possible solution being bandied about the industry is the concept of demand response. To get a more in-depth...

Senate K-Os Nevada's opposition to Yucca.
August 1, 2002... In July, Nevada Governor Kenny Guinn took one on the chin in his battle to prevent the Yucca Mountain nuclear waste repository from popping up on the Clark County horizon. However, Guinn has vowed to continue the fight against burying nuclear...

Calling all T&D investors. (Commentary).(Brief Article)
August 1, 2002... FERC grabbed attention early this month when it filed its Standard Market Design (SMD) Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (NOPR). One of the main proposals is the establishment of a single, flexible transmission service--Network Access Service,...

Gov. gives power to NYC businesses. (Companies).(Brief Article)
August 1, 2002... Governor George E. Pataki announced the allocation of lower-cost electricity to assist downtown businesses in NYC displaced or otherwise impacted by the September 11 attacks. The power, which had been supplied by the New York Power Authority to...

Dynegy finalizes ownership. (Companies).(Brief Article)
August 1, 2002... According to Dynegy Inc., Enron Corp.'s option to repurchase Northern Natural Gas Co. has expired, with Dynegy maintaining full ownership. Dave Neubauer will continue to lead as interim president.

APS lowers prices. (Companies).(Arizona Public Service)(Brief Article)
August 1, 2002... For the eighth time in nine years, Arizona Public Service (APS) will lower electricity prices for its full-service residential and small commercial customers. Since 1993, the company has reduced prices by 14.5 percent. The latest decrease will...

Sempra earns Fortune ranking. (Companies).(Brief Article)
August 1, 2002... Sempra Energy has earned the No. 2 spot on Fortune magazine's annual list of "America's 50 Best Companies for Minorities." This marks Sempra Energy's fifth consecutive year among the top five of the list.

Companies ask that you don't be Like Mike. (Companies).(electric utilities issue statement to prevent imitation of dangerous movie scene)(Brief Article)
August 1, 2002... FirstEnergy, APS and Oncor, among other power companies, have released statements asking customers to not copy a dangerous scene in the summer release Like Mike. In the film, a 14-year-old boy becomes a National Basketball Association star...

Progress Energy supports new law. (Legal & Regulatory).(Brief Article)
August 1, 2002... North Carolina Governor Mike Easley signed into law new clean air legislation mandating significant reductions in emissions from the state's 14 coalfired power plants. The new law freezes CP&L rates for five years and provides for cost recovery...

CMS Energy announces investigative body. (Legal & Regulatory).(Brief Article)
August 1, 2002... CMS Energy Corp. announced a special committee of its board of directors has selected the law firm Winston & Strawn to conduct a previously announced investigation into matters surrounding roundtrip energy trades by the company s marketing...

PSEG buys two Conn. stations. (Mergers & Acquisitions).(Brief Article)
August 1, 2002... PSEG Power has reached agreement to purchase Wisvest Corp.'s Wisvest Connecticut LLC subsidiary and the two electric generating stations it owns in Bridgeport and New Haven. The transaction will add 1,019 MW to PSEG Power's portfolio at a...

FORTISTAR to purchase Aquila's interest in project. (Mergers & Acquisitions).(Brief Article)
August 1, 2002... FORTISTAR LLC has entered into an agreement with Aquila to purchase Aquila's 16.584 percent interest in the Lockport Project. The acquisition is scheduled to close in September. (FORTISTAR is managing general partner of the project, a 200 MW...

Babcock & Wilcox awarded construction contract. (Projects & Contracts).(Brief Article)
August 1, 2002... Babcock & Wilcox Construction Co. Inc. has been awarded a contract to erect N[O.sub.x] reduction equipment at two power stations in the Midwest. The contract, valued at more than $105 million, calls for the mechanical installation of SCR...

Calpine to supply TVA. (Projects & Contracts).(Brief Article)
August 1, 2002... Calpine Corp. has entered into a three-year power sales agreement with the Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA). Beginning in June 2004, Calpine will supply TVA with an option to purchase up to 500 MW per day of baseload capacity from Calpine's 794...

Duke signs with Georgia Power. (Projects & Contracts).(Brief Article)
August 1, 2002... Duke Energy North America has been awarded a seven-year power supply contract with Georgia Power to commence in June 2005. The 620 MW of capacity will come from Duke Energy's Murray Energy Facility. The value of the contract was not disclosed.

Mirant and ECONnergy in agreement. (Projects & Contracts).(Brief Article)
August 1, 2002... Mirant and ECONnergy Energy Co. Inc. announced a five-year power and gas supply agreement with projected revenues for Mirant of approximately $1.5 billion. Under the agreement, Mirant will be the preferred provider of wholesale gas and...

Metretek to sell subsidiary. (Projects & Contracts).(Brief Article)
August 1, 2002... Metretek Technologies has entered into a letter of intent to sell all the issued and outstanding stock of PowerSecure Inc., the distributed generation subsidiary of Metretek. Pursuant to the terms of the letter, the identity of the buyer and...

EEI. (Executive Appointments).(Brief Article)
August 1, 2002... Erroll B. Davis, chairman, president and CEO of Alliant Energy Corp., was elected chairman. Allen Franklin, chairman, present and CEO of Southern Co., was elected first vice-chairman; Wayne Brunetti, president and CEO of Xcel Energy, was...

Dynegy. (Executive Appointments).(Brief Article)
August 1, 2002... Rob Doty resigned as executive vice president and chief financial officer. Louis Dorey is his replacement.

Don't be scared: market demands utility diversification. (Finance).(Brief Article)
August 1, 2002... The definition of "diversify" in relationship to commerce is to expand into new areas of business. Market pressures toward diversification within the electric utility industry these days have dramatically decreased. Instead, the media reports...

Venture capital investing: promising technologies for the utility industry. (Finance).(Brief Article)
August 1, 2002... The fundamentals of the electric market require a unique approach to venture capital (VC) investing, which, in many ways, differs from traditional VC investing. Unlike an unregulated market, the electric industry consists almost entirely of...

Crossing the threshold: the new era of the unregulated generation industry. (Industry Report).(Brief Article)
August 1, 2002... The course and the nature of the unregulated generation industry over the past half-decade will be providing raw material for business journals, academic research, internal white papers, and conference submittals for years to come. Because of...

Pipeline capacity trading on the rise. (Electric & Gas Trading).(Statistical Data Included)
August 1, 2002... In spite of what has befallen the stocks of energy trading, marketing, producing, distribution and processing firms in the natural gas market (particularly in the capacity trading business), recent statistics demonstrate that the natural gas...

El Paso Corp. reiterates "wash trades" position. (E&G Trading).(Brief Article)
August 1, 2002... In late July, El Paso Corp. announced that in its review to date, it has found no evidence of so-called "round-trip" or "wash" trades in the United States involving the company.

CES buys Enermetrix. (E&G Trading).(Brief Article)
August 1, 2002... CES International, a provider of energy delivery and network management software for distribution utilities, has acquired Enermetrix, a developer of energy software solutions, including a retail energy exchange. The Enermetrix exchange is a...

Triple Point rolls out upgrade. (E&G Trading).(Brief Article)
August 1, 2002... Triple Point Technology unveiled Energy Crossroads 3.0, an upgrade to its application service provider acquired earlier this year. Energy Crossroads 3.0 manages the lifecycle of transactions from capture and tagging to ISO scheduling and...

Duke Energy provides interim update to SEC questions. (E&G Trading).(Brief Article)
August 1, 2002... In late July, Duke Energy provided an interim response to the Securities and Exchange Commission's (SEC) May 31 informal request for information about "round-trip" energy transactions. The company's preliminary report was based on findings to...

Putting the hype in context: IT execs discuss utility trends. (Information Technology Customer Systems).(Brief Article)
August 1, 2002... EL&P invited four IT executives to share their opinions about IT trends at utilities. The participants included two representatives from utilities and two solution providers. The utility perspectives were provided by Verlyn Kroon, division...

Pumping up utility EBPP. (Information Technology Customer Systems).(Brief Article)
August 1, 2002... Electronic bill presentment and payment (EBPP) is the electronic presentation of recurring statements, bills, invoices, and related information sent by a company to its customers, and the corresponding electronic payment for goods or services....

Cinergy selects Advitium. (IT).(Brief Article)
August 1, 2002... LASCOM announced that the energy merchant business unit of Cinergy Corp. selected Advitium for its project collaboration tool initiative. Under the terms of the contract, LASCOM will automate several business processes, including engineering...

Alabama coop expands Website. (IT).(Brief Article)
August 1, 2002... Alabama Electric Cooperative has expanded its Touchstone Energy Home Program to offer Website content, online calculators and printed material to educate consumers about home energy efficiency. Developed in conjunction with Apogee Interactive...

NPCC adds to Web page. (IT).(Brief Article)
August 1, 2002... The Northeast Power Coordinating Council (NPCC), in collaboration with its five control areas (ISO-New England, New York ISO, Hydro-Quebec TransEnergie Independent Electricity Market Operator, and the Maritimes), has expanded its initial...

FPL signs deal with Pantellos. (IT).(Brief Article)
August 1, 2002... Pantellos has signed a 12-month agreement with Florida Power & Ught (FPL) in which the electric company will use Pantellos' Premier Dynamic Services offering. As part of new agreement, FPL will use the services this year to help it...

Vectren implements SCT product. (IT).(Brief Article)
August 1, 2002... Vectren Corp. will utilize SCT's most recent version of Banner Advantage CIS to assist Vectren as it unbundles the commodity and delivery services and offers Dayton, Ohio area customers the option of picking a new gas supplier.

Cooling water intake regulations hit nuclear, fossil-fuel plants. (Technology).(Brief Article)
August 1, 2002... On April 9, 2002, the U.S. Environ-mental Protection Agency (EPA) proposed new regulations for existing cooling water intake structures. The regulations could require significant changes at both nuclear and fossil-fueled power plants with...

CENfuel offers ash-free fuel. (Tech).(Brief Article)
August 1, 2002... CENfuel announced the U.S. commercial availability of a process for ultra-cleaning coal prior to combustion. According to the company, the CENfuel process has been proven in laboratory and pilot plant testing of more than 100,000 tons in...

S&C buys product line. (Tech).(Brief Article)
August 1, 2002... S&C Electric Company has purchased the Adaptive VAR Compensator product line from Trench Limited of Canada. The addition will be marketed as the PureWave AVC Adaptive VAR Compensator. (S&C will support the entire base of existing AVC...

ALSTOM turbine reaches milestone. (Tech).(Brief Article)
August 1, 2002... The Tempest was launched in 1995 as a single-shaft machine for power generation and cogeneration applications. With the recent order to supply a unit for a cogeneration scheme in Germany, total sales of the Tempest reached 50 units sold into 20...

Washington Group to treat radioactive waste. (Tech).(Brief Article)
August 1, 2002... Washington Group International Inc., through its Westinghouse Government Environmental Services Company subsidiary, has formed a joint venture with Studsvik Inc. to offer a non-incineration thermal technology that could significantly cut the...

Cummins to supply generators. (Tech).(Brief Article)
August 1, 2002... Cummins Power Generation is supplying twelve 1,750 kW gas engine generators for a 21 MW peaking plant in Tennessee being built by Atmos Power Systems Inc., a subsidiary of Atmos Energy Corporation. The power plant will burn natural gas and...

Praxair introduces technology. (Tech).(Brief Article)
August 1, 2002... Praxair Inc. announced its advanced, proprietary low-N[O.sub.x] emissions burner technology for coal-fired, wall-fired utility and industrial boilers. Results to date, in commercial burners and research units, demonstrate that this technology...

Underwater project struggles for air. (Transmission & Distribution).(Brief Article)
August 1, 2002... Several years ago our client, Cross-Sound Cable Company LLC, began its efforts to construct and operate a high-voltage direct current (HVDC) electric transmission and fiber optic cable system from New Haven, Conn. to Long Island, N.Y. capable...

Double your transmission capacity without changing existing towers. (Transmission & Distribution).(Brief Article)
August 1, 2002... Transmission line ratings are based on a maximum allowed operating temperature to limit conductor damage and maintain required clearances for public safety. Unfortunately, conductors can reach high operating temperatures when lines overload and...

Creating positive employee relationships. (Management Methods).(Brief Article)
August 1, 2002... Tell them when they are doing better Most managers will happily pat an employee on the back when he or she does an outstanding job, but will say little or nothing to indicate recognition of any other kind of work. Yet, the human...

Calendar events.(Brief Article)
August 1, 2002... AUGUST Aug. 25-28 26th Annual Symposium: The Relevance of Records Nuclear Information and Records Management Assn. (704/892-1017), www.nirma.org, Knoxville, Tenn. Aug. 27-29 Latin America Power & Gas PennWell Confs....

Primer on ACSS/TW overhead conductor. (Power Pointers).(Brief Article)
August 1, 2002... The Aluminum Conductor Steel Supported (ACSS) bare overhead conductor was developed in the 1970s by the Electrical Division of Reynolds Metals (now part of General Cable Corp.). ACSS/TW (Trapezoidal ACSS) is an enhancement if the original...

A Yucca Mountain travelogue. (News).
August 1, 2002... It was 6:20 when I walked out into another brilliant Nevada morning. I was headed for Yucca Mountain, a remote patch of desert behind the military gates of the Nevada Test Site and the proposed site for power plants to store used, but still...

A word to utilities: don't shy away from CHP. (News).(Brief Article)
August 1, 2002... Combined heat and power, often referred to by its acronym "CHP," is the oldest form of commercial electricity generation. Thomas Edison installed a CHP plant on Pearl Street, not a simple electric generating station. At the same time, CHP is...