Electric Light & Power articles from November 2002

Electric Light & Power archives from November 2002

Setting (thankfully) into a lull. (Commentary).(Editorial)
November 1, 2002... There seems to be a sense of things finally settling down in our industry. This isn't to say all issues are being resolved and all is right with our world, but a lull seems to have mercifully blanketed our "business as unusual" mode of the last...

Energy East Corp. announces early retirement program at operating utilities. (Companies).(Brief Article)
November 1, 2002... As part of its ongoing system-wide integration, Energy East Corp. announced a voluntary early retirement program for salaried employees of its six operating utilities which include The Berkshire Gas Co., Central Maine Power Co., Connecticut...

KPMG changes name. (Companies).(to BearingPoint Inc.)(Brief Article)
November 1, 2002... KPMG Consulting Inc., a business consulting and systems integration company, has changed its name and its brand to BearingPoint Inc.

Dynegy cuts back workforce. (Companies).(Brief Article)
November 1, 2002... Dynegy Inc. announced a workforce reduction in connection with the company's previously announced restructuring initiative and exit from the marketing and trading business. The reduction affects approximately 780 employees, including...

Texas remains leader. (Deregulation).(Brief Article)
November 1, 2002... Texas continues to lead the U.S. in electricity restructuring, but progress in this country has virtually ground to a halt, the update to the third edition of the Retail Energy Deregulation Index (RED Index) shows. Progress toward restructuring...

FERC approves AEP separation. (Legal & Regulatory).(Federal Energy Regulatory Commission approves separation plan of American Electric Power)(Brief Article)
November 1, 2002... American Electric Power (AEP) received Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) approval of its corporate separation plan to form wholly owned regulated and unregulated companies. AEP filed the request in July 2001. AEP's plan provides for...

FERC applauds RTO West filing. (Legal & Regulatory).(Federal Energy Regulatory Commission)(Brief Article)
November 1, 2002... The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) unanimously approved most aspects associated with the development of RTO West, a regional transmission organization. The Stage 2 filing was submitted on March 29, asking FERC to determine that RTO...

Duking it out over Duke. (News).
November 1, 2002... There are two major landmarks in Morro Bay. One, Morro Rock, rises up out of the bay like the hump of a submerged terra-firma camel. The second, the Morro Bay Power Plant, is right down the street and has a set of stacks that soar into the...

Benefit of counsel: trading in Enron's effluent. (News).(trading strategies after the Enron debacle)
November 1, 2002... "Death Star," "Get Shorty" and "Fat Boy." In the energy industry, references to these and other Enron trading strategies have become commonplace. But what exactly did the Enron traders do? How has Enron's behavior been viewed by the Federal...

Accelerating the advent of the hydrogen economy. (Executive Insights).
November 1, 2002... The promise of a hydrogen economy raises hopes about many of the country's immediate energy concerns, particularly the delivery of an abundant supply of reliable, cost-effective energy with zero emissions. Citing the benefits is one...

AEP's Learning from Light! program closes in on 100th school.(American Electric Power's solar energy program)
November 1, 2002... Students at Bluffsville Elementary School in Worthington, Ohio, in 1999 discovered the "wow" moment that really got them excited about science and math--the solar energy system they installed was generating electricity. Bluffsview was the first...

Change issues block consolidation benefits for utilities. (News).
November 1, 2002... Many electric and utility companies have acquired or merged with other firms in the past few years. As a result, these companies have realized occasional efficiency improvements and economies of scale. But these benefits merely represent the...

Diversity management strategies bring rewards to power industry. (News).
November 1, 2002... Recent studies show a significant correlation between a culture of inclusion (which can be created with an effective diversity management strategy) and long-term business success. For example, in their book "The New Corporate Cultures:...

A utility's security game plan must include crisis management. (News).
November 1, 2002... The persistent threats of terrorist activities, coupled with even more frequently occurring natural disasters, serve as ongoing reminders of the importance of effective crisis management and business-continuity planning. In light of the...

Irish companies expand to supply U.S. power industry. (News).
November 1, 2002... When it comes to deregulated energy markets, the Irish have seen it all before, and they are bringing their experience to the United States. In recent years, several Irish suppliers have opened offices here, and are working with a growing...

U.S. grid-connected PV shines despite cost. (News).
November 1, 2002... According to some estimates, there is more than 1 gigawatt of photovoltaic (PV) power currently operating in the world, with over 350 MW added in the past year. Much of that power is being used--as it has been for decades--as a distributed...

Lawsuit filed against AEP. (Legal & Regulatory).(American Electric Power Company Inc.)(Brief Article)
November 1, 2002... The law firm of Lovell Stewart Halebian LLP filed a class action lawsuit on October 22, 2002 on behalf of all persons who purchased, converted, exchanged or otherwise acquired the common stock of American Electric Power Company, inc. (AEP)...

Nova Scotia Power receives ruling. (Legal & Regulatory).(Brief Article)
November 1, 2002... Nova Scotia Power received a ruling from the Nova Scotia Utility and Review Board (UARB) regarding the power company's 2002 rate application. The application sought an average rate increase of 8.9 percent across all customer classes. Nova...

Willbros completes Mt. West transaction. (Mergers & Acquisitions).(Brief Article)
November 1, 2002... Willbros Group Inc. announced that it has completed the acquisition of the Mt. West Group of companies: Mt. West Fabrication Plants and Stations Inc., Process Electric and Control Inc., Process Engineering Design Inc. and Pacific Industrial...

GWF renegotiates Calif. power contracts. (Project & Contracts).(Brief Article)
November 1, 2002... PSEG Global confirmed that its joint venture GWF Energy LLC has successfully renegotiated terms and conditions to supply power to the state of California from three new peaker facilities located on the major transmission line known as NP15. The...

Earth Tech wins Mexican power projects. (Projects & Contracts).(Brief Article)
November 1, 2002... Earth Tech has been awarded two separate design/build/finance power transmission contracts from the Comision Federal de Electricidad (CFE). The two projects, known as the Eastern Bajio System and the Associated Network of Rio Bravo have project...

Duke Power to buy peaking capacity. (Projects & Contracts).(Progress Energy Inc.)(Brief Article)
November 1, 2002... Duke Power has agreed to purchase peaking generation capacity from Progress Energy. The contract, involving Progress Energy's Rowan County Energy Complex in North Carolina, runs from June 1, 2004 to May 31, 2008. Financial terms of the...

Difficults surround transmission system financing. (Finance).(Industry Overview)
November 1, 2002... As loads increase, upgrading (and extending) transmission lines is more important than ever. Unfortunately, financing those projects is becoming more difficult as utilities adjust their business strategies to compete in the changeable power...

Utility companies should look into selling bad debt. (Finance).
November 1, 2002... There is no question that the utility landscape is rapidly changing from the protected environment of a state-regulated monopoly to today's open marketplace full of benefits and challenges. While this reality is effecting many aspects of the...

As the pendulum swings riding high on the boom: operating performance 2001-2002 generation hiatus expected in 2003. (Industry Report).(Illustration)
November 1, 2002... This year's operating performance report requires an introduction that provides "the big picture" of the business of generation. The cyclical nature of power supply and demand is not new; however, where generation's blip appears on the radar...

Bridging the gap between economics and ecology with CHP. (Combined Heat & Power).(cogeneration)
November 1, 2002... In the wake of increasing power demands, escalating utility costs, and tightening environmental constraints, resource conservation and energy efficiency are rapidly becoming topics of greater interest. At the same time, the North American power...

A CHP success story: All Systems Cogeneration Inc. (Combined Heat & Power).
November 1, 2002... All Systems Cogeneration Inc. is a developer and operator of small-scale cogeneration systems. Their combined heat and power plants help meet the electrical and thermal needs of the host facility while reducing energy costs. The company has...

CHP isn't realizing its potential. (Combined Heat & Power).
November 1, 2002... Despite the economic and environmental benefits as well as technology development of combined heat and power (CHP) systems, CHP market penetration has been stalled in the past few years. Order surveys among major manufacturers worldwide showed...

A CHP success story: The College of New Jersey. (Combined Heat & Power).(gas turbines)
November 1, 2002... The College of New Jersey (TCNJ) is located in Ewing, NJ, and is part of New Jersey's state system of higher education. The campus occupies 340 acres and has a central steam, chilled water, and cogeneration plant to service 3.2 million square...

A CHP success story: Trigen Energy Corp., Tulsa, Okla. (Combined Heat & Power).
November 1, 2002... Trigen is a developer, owner, and operator of industrial, commercial, institutional, and district energy systems in North America. In 1989, Trigen purchased Tulsa's 19-year-old district heating and cooling facility from a local utility. The...

Developing a natural gas hedging process. (Electric & Gas Trading).
November 1, 2002... Many utilities are currently trying to develop a hedging program for their natural gas needs. This task consists of determining utility's natural gas needs and risk with respect to market price, with a comparison to the organization's risk...

Formation of 10x Group. (Intercontinental Announces).(Intercontinental Exchange)(Brief Article)
November 1, 2002... Intercontinental Exchange (Intercontinental), a global electronic commodity trading platform, announced the formation of the 10x Group, a market data services company with offices in Houston and London. The 1 Ox group has been established to...

S&P releases gas industry report card. (Intercontinental Announces).(Standard & Poor's "Industry Report Card: Global Oil and Gas,")(Brief Article)
November 1, 2002... Among the key issues that determine credit quality in the global oil and gas industry are merger and acquisition activity, sovereign risk, and pricing assumptions, according to a report released by Standard & Poor's (S&P) Rating Services. The...

AEP axes traders, downsizes. (Intercontinental Announces).(American Electric Power Company Inc.)(Brief Article)
November 1, 2002... According to news reports, shares of American Electric Power (AEP) plummeted in October after the company stated it would fire five traders for providing "inaccurate price information" to trade media for use in indexes. AEP executive vice...

El Paso says FERC ruling sets dangerous precedent. (Intercontinental Announces).(Federal Energy Regulatory Commission rules deliberate withholding of supplies)(Brief Article)
November 1, 2002... EI Paso Corp., a natural gas pipeline company, told federal regulators a ruling that an El Paso pipeline deliberately withheld supplies during the California energy crisis sets a dangerous precedent for all U.S. pipelines. EI Paso said the...

Aquila to cut another 200 jobs by end of year. (Intercontinental Announces).(Brief Article)
November 1, 2002... Aquila Inc. plans to cut about 200 more jobs by the end of the year as the utility moves away from energy dealing, said CEO Richard Green Jr. With those cuts and others, the company said it will have shed nearly 25 percent of its work force by...

Interoperable, open systems automate utilities for efficiency and expansion. (Information Technology Customer Systems).
November 1, 2002... In July 2001 Enel S.p.A of Italy, the world's largest publicly traded electric utility, began deploying a network that should eventually connect 27 million homes and buildings with LonWorks based smart meters. Using smart metering technology...

Unleashing the service chain. (Information Technology Customer Systems).(customer relationship management strategy)(Column)
November 1, 2002... Deregulation in the energy industry has undoubtedly caused some shifts in the market. Even if it has not led to direct competition on a regional basis, it has amplified the call for more customer-focused service throughout the country. Customer...

Clearing the air: clear skies and competing multi-pollutant legislation. (Technology).(provisions of the Clear Skies Bill and the Jeffords-Lieberman Bill)
November 1, 2002... Shortly before this article went to press, another multi-pollutant bill was introduced by Sen. Tom Carper of Delaware. This bill (S3135) has attracted some initial support because it is perceived as more stringent than the Clear Skies Bill but...

Peabody mines inject money into tribal communities. (Tech: Briefs).(coal mining agreements with Navajo and Hopi communities)(Brief Article)
November 1, 2002... Coal mining on Arizona's Black Mesa injected more than $110 million in direct economic benefits into Navajo and Hopi communities last year, bringing the more than 30-year economic impact of the operations to more than $2 billion, Peabody...

Framatome ANP wins contract. (Tech: Briefs).(Brief Article)
November 1, 2002... Framatome ANP, and AREVA and Siemens company, has been awarded a contract by Entergy Operations Inc. to replace the steam generators and reactor vessel head for the Arkansas Nuclear One, Unit 1 (ANO-1) plant. The project, valued in excess of...

Terra provides services, nitrogen. (Tech: Briefs).(Brief Article)
November 1, 2002... Terra Industries has contracted to provide technical services and more than 25,000 tons of nitrogen in the form of anhydrous and aqua ammonia, urea and urea liquor, to electricity producers in 2002. Terra representatives further stated that...

Ambient gets patent. (Tech: Briefs).(Brief Article)
November 1, 2002... Ambient Corp. announced that the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office has issued Ambient a patent for its couplers and related features. The patent (US Patent 6,452,482) covers the coupling of data signals onto both overhead and underground power...

Emerson re-brands. (Tech: Briefs).(Brief Article)
November 1, 2002... Emerson Process Management announced that its Westinghouse Process Control business will now be known as Emerson Process Management Power & Water Solutions.

NxtPhase wins award. (Tech: Briefs).(R&D 100 award for the NXVCT optical voltage and current sensor)(Brief Article)
November 1, 2002... NxtPhase Corp., a provider of digital and fiber optic solutions for the electric power industry, has won an R&D 100 award for the NXVCT optical voltage and current sensor. Sponsored by R&D Magazine, the award recognizes innovate technology...

ABB delivers. (Tech: Briefs).(equipment to Old Dominion Electric Cooperative)(Brief Article)
November 1, 2002... ABB Power Electronics has delivered a large capacity PCS 600-SVC (static var compensator) system to Old Dominion Electric Cooperative. The 0-19 MVAr system was delivered to and commissioned at the site on the eastern shore of Virginia within...

First fuel cell installed under Jersey plan. (Tech: Briefs).(Brief Article)
November 1, 2002... The first fuel cell in New Jersey installed under the Board of Public Utilities' (BPU) statewide initiative to promote the use of clean and renewable energy technologies has been formally dedicated. BPU President Jeanne M. Fox and NUI...

Things a good leader does. (Management Methods).
November 1, 2002... He initiates action. When there's work to be done, he states what it is and tells who is to accomplish it. When a decision must be made, he makes it. This is not to say that the good leader is an absolute autocrat. In fact, he had better not...

Watch that temper! (Management Methods).(Brief Article)
November 1, 2002... Managers with hot tempers rapidly gain a bad reputation and lose the respect of their people. Subordinates grow fearful, communications are frequently disrupted, teamwork disappears. In time, the experienced employee learns how to "play" the...

Calendar events.
November 1, 2002... NOVEMBER 19-21 EPRI Wireless Technology Conf.: Power Industry Applications Electric Power Research Institute (800/245-3142) www.epri.com Orlando, Fla. 21-22 Int'l Conf. on [SF.sub.6] and the Environment ...

Koolau-Pukele structures replacement project. (Transmission & Distribution).(Hawaiian Electric Co. substation)
November 1, 2002... One of the key substations on Hawaiian Electric Co.'s (HECO) grid in Oahu is the Pukele Substation. This substation services approximately 18 percent of the total load on the island, including the key business and vacation area of Waikiki and...

Viewing maintenance from the perspective of investment protection. (Transmission & Distribution).(electric utilities)
November 1, 2002... Electric utilities pass through several phases of development: original incorporation and construction, on-going operations, upgrades and expansion, and--though perhaps not a phase but rather a continuum--maintenance. While maintenance may not...

Study finds proposed transmission line could impact San Diego economy. (Bulletin Board).(San Diego, California)(Brief Article)
November 1, 2002... San Diego Gas & Electric's (SDG&E) proposed Valley Rainbow Interconnect transmission line will help San Diego County reach its full economic potential through 2020, according to a new economic study. Titled "Economic Impact and Benefit Analysis...

IEEE approves new standard. (Bulletin Board).(Brief Article)
November 1, 2002... The Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers Standards Association (IEEE-SA) Standards Board has approved a new standard for automatically reclosing line circuit breakers on transmission and distribution (T&D) lines. It also approved...

New software for A3 ALPHA meter. (T&D: Briefs).(ABB releases MeterIT Metercat Sofware version 1.2)(Brief Article)
November 1, 2002... ABB has released MeterIT Metercat Software version 1.2, which reads ABB's MeterIT A3 ALPHA meter. A new feature of the software is the ability to program Itron's 50ESS ERT, a radio-based medule recently integrated under-the-cover of the meter....

Intergraph acquires Z/I Imaging. (T&D: Briefs).(Brief Article)
November 1, 2002... Intergraph has signed an agreement with the Carl Zeiss Group to acquire its minority interest in Z/I Imaging, making the earth-imaging company a wholly-owned subsidiary of Intergraph. Z/I Imaging will merge with Intergraph's mapping and GIS...

Primer on gas turbine [NO.sub.x] abatement. (Power Pointers).
November 1, 2002... Because nitrogen oxides ([NO.sub.x]) contribute significantly to the ozone problem, some parts of the United States have pushed [NO.sub.x] emissions requirements for gas turbines to below 5ppm. These stringent regulations are forcing power...

Progress Energy to sell NCNG. (Mergers & Acquisitions).(North Carolina Natural Gas )(Brief Article)
November 1, 2002... Progress Energy announced an agreement to sell stock of its North Carolina Natural Gas (NCNG) subsidiary to Piedmont Natural Gas for approximately $425 million in cash. (Progress Energy plans to use the net proceeds from the sale to pay down...

Maximizing the value of strategic assets: a solid foundation is the key to success.
November 1, 2002... Taking the Lead Business leaders today are faced with persistent and potentially threatening competitive forces and must consider if they are getting the most they can out of their resources, including human, physical and intellectual...