Electric Light & Power articles from October 2002

Electric Light & Power archives from October 2002

View from the top: Aquila's Green expounds on DOE's new Electrically Advisory Board.(Rick Green, Department of Energy)(Interview)
October 1, 2002... According to the Department of Energy (DOE), Secretary Abraham established the Electricity Advisory Board (EAB) in November 2001 to provide Abraham and the DOE with essential independent advice and recommendations on electricity policy issues....

Benefit of counsel: it's time to tally NOPR's effects.(Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, notice of proposed rulemaking )(Column)
October 1, 2002... DAY HOWARD Editor's note: EL&P is pleased to present our new legal column, written by Day Berry & Howard lawyers. Look for "Benefit of counsel" each month for timely updates on industry developments. BERRY On July 31, 2002...

New rules of thumb for today's CEOs. (Commentary).(energy industry personnel management strategy)(Editorial)
October 1, 2002... This industry is experiencing a very high turnover rate, and you may be surprised to learn just how high the level goes with all those spinning leather chairs. The good news is the job security afforded to the employees that order and produce...

DTE Energy announces hydrogen power park partnership. (Projects and Contracts).(Department of Energy agreement)(Brief Article)
October 1, 2002... DTE Energy has been selected by the U.S. Department of Energy as its partner in a hydrogen power park project. Over the next three years, DTE Energy will develop, build and operate an integrated hydrogen energy system capable of delivering...

DOE awards uranium disposition contract to UDS. (Projects and Contracts).
October 1, 2002... Uranium Disposition Services (UDS), a joint venture company specifically formed for this project is composed of three partners: Framatome ANP, Duratek Federal Services, and Burns and ROE Enterprises. UDS has been awarded a contract by the U.S....

Foster Wheeler building plant. (Projects and Contracts).(Foster Wheeler Power Group Inc. receives LMB Funding contract)(Brief Article)
October 1, 2002... The Foster Wheeler Power Group Inc. has been awarded a contract valued at approximately $200 million by LMB Funding to engineer, procure and construct a nominal 600 MW capacity combined-cycle natural gas-fired power plant. Construction is...

Black & Veatch to do renewables study. (Projects and Contracts).(Brief Article)
October 1, 2002... Black & Veatch has been selected by the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development to assess the potential for renewable energy use in 27 countries located throughout Central and Eastern Europe and the former Soviet Union. The objective...

Microbes harvest electrcity city from waste organic matter? (News).
October 1, 2002... Editor's note: Lovley recently received an $8.9 million, three-year grant from the Department of Energy (DOE) for this research, as part of the "Genomes to Life" program. Genomes to Life "plans to take advantage of solutions that nature has...

ASCE T&D confrence presents engineer's point-of-view? (News).(American Society of Civil Engineers)
October 1, 2002... The American Society of Civil Engineers' (ASCE) 2002 Electrical Transmission Conference: Electrical Transmission in a New Age, held in Omaha, Neb., in September, brought engineers from all over the U.S. and Canada to share research, development...

Fru-Con named mechanical contract for Texas plant. (Projects and Contracts).(Brief Article)
October 1, 2002... Fru-Con Construction Corp. has been named the mechanical contractor for a combined-cycle power plant under construction alongside an existing facility in southeast Texas for the South Texas Electric Cooperative. The contract is valued at $13...

Davis-Besse submits report. (Legal and Regulatory).(to Nuclear Regulatory Commission)(Brief Article)
October 1, 2002... FirstEnergy Nuclear Operating Co. submitted a root cause analysis report to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission addressing management and organizational issues that contributed to the corrosion problem on the reactor head at Davis-Besse. Human...

Ninth Circuit bumps decision to Calif. Supreme Court. (Legal and Regulatory).(Southern California Edison v. California Public Utilities Commission)(Brief Article)
October 1, 2002... In a unanimous decision, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit rejected federal law challenges by consumer group The Utility Reform Network to the settlement agreement between Southern California Edison (SCE) and the California Public...

Executive appointments. (News).(Brief Article)
October 1, 2002... Frank Donnelly has been named vice president of power plants. Glenn F. Tilton has resigned as interim chairman. Malyn K. Malquist is senior vice president. Richard C. Kelly replaces Edward J. McIntyre as chief financial officer....

Distributed knowledge management can enhance utility security. (News).
October 1, 2002... Information Systems (IS) are vital components of the control and management of power from generation to end-use. Supervisory control and data acquisition (SCADA) systems, which allow a control center to collect electrical system data from nodes...

Natural gas infrastructure development on hold. (Finance).
October 1, 2002... The gas industry's ability to develop new resources and head off an imminent supply crisis is greatly hampered by reduced cashflow and lack of access to new capital. Market participants are afraid (or unable in a cash-constrained environment)...

Power industry attracts private equity. (Finance).(ArcLight Energy Partners Fund I, L.P.)(Brief Article)
October 1, 2002... ArcLight Capital Partners LLC, a Boston-based private equity firm, announced the final closing of its $950 million debut fund, ArcLight Energy Partners Fund I, L.P. ArcLight established the fund to capitalize on attractive investment...

S&P chronicles post 9-11 energy sector damage. (Fianance).(Brief Article)
October 1, 2002... The Enron Corp. bankruptcy, the weakening of the power markets in the U.S., and the recent investigations into electricity trading have sharply focused the news media, Congress, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission and the Securities...

Mirant sells U.K. assets to PPL Corp. (Finance Briefs).(Western Power Distribution)(Brief Article)
October 1, 2002... Mirant announced the sale of its 49 percent economic interest in and shared management control of, Western Power Distribution Holdings Limited and WPD Investment Holdings (both identified jointly as WPD) to PPL Corp. for $235 million. The sale...

Duke Energy delays plants. (Finance Briefs).(Brief Article)
October 1, 2002... Duke Energy Corp. has stopped construction on its 620 MW Grays Harbor plant in Washington and its 608 MW Luna plant in New Mexico. These plants were scheduled to come on line in mid-2003. According to Standard and Poor's, Duke is evaluating the...

Foster Wheeler secures new financing. (Finance Briefs).(Brief Article)
October 1, 2002... Foster Wheeler Ltd. obtained new credit arrangements that include a $290 million secured load and a revolving credit facility that matures in April 2005. The new facilities will provide $82 million in increased liquidity to the company. As a...

Entergy seeks to boost debt registration. (Finance Briefs).(Brief Article)
October 1, 2002... Dow Jones reported that Entergy intends to raise the amount of debt it can offer under a previously filed shelf registration statement by $500 million to $2 billion. Entergy said it filed under the Public Utility Holding Company Act in April...

Credit quality lies in market forecasts, not market prices. (Finance Briefs).(Brief Article)
October 1, 2002... The market forecast is a useful tool in assessing the likely financial performance of merchant power assets, but it is inappropriate to view the market forecast as a prophet of market prices, according to a report published by Fitch Ratings....

RETX receives new investment capital. (Finance Briefs).(from SaskTel)(Brief Article)
October 1, 2002... RETX, provider of Web-based solutions, has been approved for an investment of more than $3 million from Canadian telecommunications company, SaskTel. The investment will be used by RETX to continue the growth of its customer base among electric...

SNWA eyes purchase of Nevada Power. (Finance Briefs).(Brief Article)
October 1, 2002... The Southern Nevada Water Authority (SNWA) reaffirmed its late August offer to purchase Nevada Power Co. from Sierra Pacific Resources for about $32 billion in cash and assumed debt. On September 12, Sierra Pacific Resources called the SNWA...

Markets, capital, regulations top OEM execs' concerns. (Industry Report).(Frank Donnelly and Frank Alix)(Interview)
October 1, 2002... We're all waiting for a turnaround in the economy for personal reasons, and for most of us, for business reasons as well. EL&P's interviews with two leaders of OEM companies--a provider of solutions for decentralized power generation and a...

Weather risk comes of age. (Electric & Gas Trading).
October 1, 2002... Energy and other weather-sensitive sectors will soon have a new umbrella to shield them from exposure to the wily whims of Mother Nature. Set to launch in mid-October is a new weather deal "rainmaker," if you will, the Chicago-based Weather...

Tight gas market is vulnerable. (Electric & Gas Trading).(Brief Article)
October 1, 2002... The arraignment of the gas industry before the investment community, regulators and the public continues to be headline news. ESAI, in its latest North American Natural Gas Stockwatch 2-Year Outlook, suggests that the media spotlight has...

ScottishPower acquires Aquila's Texas gas storage. (Electric & Gas Trading).
October 1, 2002... ScottishPower (SPW) recently announced that its competitive U.S. energy business, PacifiCorp Power Marketing Inc. (PPM) has agreed to acquire, in a purchase of assets, Aquila Corp.'s Katy gas storage facility in Texas and four other gas storage...

Aquila scales down exec staff; CEO Bob Green resigns. (Electric & Gas Trading).(Brief Article)
October 1, 2002... Aquila Inc. announced on October 1 that it reached an agreement with president and CEO Robert K. Green under which he has resigned from all executive officer positions with the company and from Aquila's board of directors. The company cited...

Telecom, power co-location can be mutually beneficial. (Transmission & Distribution).
October 1, 2002... At the American Society of Civil Engineers' 2002 Electrical Transmission Conference in Omaha last month, speaker Edgar Turcotte of Tadros Associates LLC, a structural engineering and consulting firm located in Omaha, stated that "assuming...

Spotlight on hardware: Life extension program for power lines can defer capital expenditures. (Transmission & Distribution).(EPRIsolutions service)
October 1, 2002... A new "Transmission Line Life Extension" service offered by EPRIsolutions is designed to help utilities cope with increasing pressures to minimize operating costs, reduce capital spending, and maximize the use of existing facilities. "By...

Hubbell Power Systems announces expansion. (T&D Briefs).(acquires hardware from Cooper Power Systems)(Brief Article)
October 1, 2002... Hubbell Power Systems announced the signing of a definitive agreement to complete an asset purchase of the pole line hardware business currently owned by Cooper Power Systems. Such purchase is scheduled to be completed at the end of a sixty-day...

Itron signs agreement with Tampa Electric. (T&D Briefs).(Brief Article)
October 1, 2002... Itron Inc. announced that it has reached an agreement with Tampa Electric Company (TEC) to provide the investor-owned utility with software to optimize the design of its distribution system assets. Itron will also implement the software,...

AEP smoothes ROW maintenance with herbicide contract mixing. (Transmission & Distribution).(rights-of-way)
October 1, 2002... With an array of environmental concerns facing America and the public highly scrutinizing large corporations, utilities can dispel some community anxiety by making environmentally sound decisions along public rights-of-way (ROW). American...

Most participants claim to have substation automation programs underway. (Transmission & Distribution).
October 1, 2002... The Newton-Evans Research Company has released preliminary findings from its summer long research study of North American utility substation officials. To date, tabulations of surveys from more than 115 utilities, representing about one third...

LADWP contracts with SchlumbergerSema for upgrade project. (Transmission & Distribution).(Los Angeles Department of Water and Power)
October 1, 2002... In 1999, LADWP initiated a comprehensive assessment of all department control systems. The assessment uncovered a number of systems that could be improved by replacing the existing supervisory control and data acquisition (SCADA) system with...

Make sure those complaints are legitimate. (Management Methods).
October 1, 2002... Not all employee complaints are justified by the facts. Next time you find yourself facing a grumbling employee, consider these possibilities. They could save you from a lot of needless sound and fury. * Misunderstanding: Many gripes are...

Advancements in CIS: new customer demands means increased functionality. (Information Technology Customer Systems).(customer information systems)
October 1, 2002... According to some utility industry analysts, he current atmosphere in the utility industry has created a number of increased demands on utilities. In the case of the investor-owned utility, there is the strong need to increase shareholder...

Workforce management in action: ONG. (Information Technology Customer Systems).
October 1, 2002... Once upon a time, a spreadsheet and the weekend were the only way to create a schedule at Oklahoma Natural Gas. The time involved in creating it weighed heavily in the decision to use one schedule for an entire quarter with fixed shifts, breaks...

Progress Energy implements on-line distribution fault location. (Technology).
October 1, 2002... Locating faults on distribution lines has historically involved information from a variety of sources including customers, 911 emergency calls, and outage predictions from the OMS. Sometimes this information leads directly to the faulted line...

ComEd, Ill. Wind Energy partner for farm. (Technology).(with Tomen Power Corp.)(Brief Article)
October 1, 2002... ComEd, Illinois Wind Energy and Tomen Power Corp. announced plans for creating the "first commercial wind farm in Illinois," according to the companies. The Crescent Ridge wind energy project will become one of the largest wind farms east of...

Waukesha consolidates manufacturing. (Tech Briefs).(Brief Article)
October 1, 2002... Waukesha Electric Systems plans to consolidate power transformer production into plants in Wisconsin and North Carolina, closing its facility in Milpitas, Calif., and transferring large power production to its Waukesha, Wis., operations. The...

Catawba, Westinghouse provide training facility. (Tech Briefs).(Brief Article)
October 1, 2002... Duke Power and Westinghouse are partnering to provide a training facility on the grounds of the Catawba Nuclear Station and will use existing lab and classroom space. Catawba will also provide some training personnel and the opportunity for...

GE to provide SCADA. (Tech Briefs).(supervisory control and data acquisition system)(Brief Article)
October 1, 2002... GE Network Solutions has received a contract from the U.S. Department of the Interior's Bureau of Reclamation to supply a supervisory control and data acquisition (SCADA) system for an upgrade of the Bureau's Colorado River storage facility in...

NYPA energizes aquarium. (Tech Briefs).(New York Power Authority)(Brief Article)
October 1, 2002... The 105-year-old New York Aquarium now boasts an aquatic life support system powered by fuel cell technology. The New York Power Authority (NYPA) installed a 200kW unit which now supplies 20 percent of the aquarium's energy needs. The...

ICF releases study on emissions market. (Tech Briefs).(Brief Article)
October 1, 2002... By depleting [SO.sub.2] allowance banks now, power companies will accelerate their need to spend billions on [SO.sub.2] controls under impending multi-pollutant regulation, according to a new study released by ICF Consulting. The study goes on...

GE Industrial to acquire EURO-DIESEL. (Tech Briefs).(Brief Article)
October 1, 2002... GE Industrial Systems, a division of the General Electric Co., has signed a definitive agreement with SEGHERSgroup to purchase EURO-DIESEL, a designer and manufacturer of rotary uninterruptible power supply systems. Expected to close in the...

ExxonMobil provides lubrication. (Tech Briefs).(Brief Article)
October 1, 2002... The Mobil Turbine Commissioning Program from ExxonMobil provides a lubrication approach for start-up and operation of new power generation plants by marrying initial fill lubrication with value-added services, oil analysis and technical support...

Allegheny orders Mobotec system. (Tech Briefs).(Brief Article)
October 1, 2002... Allegheny Energy Supply Co. will install Mobotec's ROFA (rotating opposed fire air) and Rotamix [NO.sub.x] reduction systems on unit 2 of Allegheny's Fort Martin Generating Station in West Virginia. Unit 2 is a 555 MW Babcock & Wilcox bailer...

Black & Veatch, Palmdale go renewable. (Tech Briefs).(Brief Article)
October 1, 2002... Black & Veatch has been selected by the Palmdale Water District to assist in the development of two renewable energy projects to be located in the California city. The project, which consists of both solar energy and wind energy components, is...

The America's Mitsubishi. Powering ahead. (Bulletin Board: Advertisement).
October 1, 2002... Mitsubishi Power Systems is your new HQ for Mitsubishi power generating technologies, engineering, sales and service in the Americas. For a comprehensive overview of advanced combustion-, steam- and combined-cycle power systems; in-hemisphere...

People. Presence. Proximity. (Bulletin Board: Advertisement).
October 1, 2002... Mitsubishi Power Systems' dedicated Americas Service Center brings a "world of service" a half-world closer. Discover our new in-hemisphere resource for OEM-style turbine repair and component manufacturing; remote monitoring and...

Solve gas conditioning challenges with Spraying Systems Co. (Bulletin Board: Advertisement).
October 1, 2002... Spraying Systems Co., the leading provider of spray nozzle systems, offers many options for improving your gas conditioning processes and your bottom line. Whether it's SO2 removal or NOx control, higher performance begins with our more than...

Primer on enterprise asset management. (Power Pointer).
October 1, 2002... Enterprise asset management (EAM) solutions are at the core of a utility's operating environment, in conjunction with geographic information systems (GIS), customer information systems (CIS), outage management, and supervisory control and data...