Electric Light & Power articles from September 2000

Electric Light & Power archives from September 2000

Florida merchant power dances one step forward, two steps back.(Brief Article)
September 1, 2000... The City of New Smyrna Beach and Duke Energy New Smyrna Beach Power Co. (the Duke Team") made great strides on the road to merchant power with the Florida Public Service Commission (FPSC), only to have them snatched away by the Florida Supreme...

ISO, open market cornered by consumers baring teeth.(Brief Article)
September 1, 2000... The championship bout over California power has ended; the price cap was, indeed, lowered to $250. And now California waits--for the heat to dip, for the rates to balance out...for the other shoe to fall. On July 31st, the California...

Introducing PennWell's APC.(Brief Article)
September 1, 2000... PennWell Corp., parent company of EL&P, has acquired the American Power Conference (APC) from Chicago's Illinois Institute of Technology (IIT). Consider the following: PennWell Corp. has been the industry's leading provider of electric...

TXU and FPL to go with the wind.(Brief Article)
September 1, 2000... TXU Electric & Gas and FPL Energy LLC, the independent power production subsidiary of FPL Group Inc., have signed a wind contract under which FPL will supply approximately 500 million kWh of electricity per year. Construction will begin late...

L.A. locks the cell.(Brief Article)
September 1, 2000... FuelCell Energy Inc. of Danbury, Conn., will install a fuel cell power plant at the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power's (LADWP) downtown headquarters. The 250 kW direct fuel cell power plant is expected to be operational within a year....

Panda plans Mich. Merchant.(Brief Article)
September 1, 2000... Panda Energy International Inc. plans to build a 1,000 MW merchant plant near Grand Rapids, Mich. by the fall of 2004. Construction on the natural gas-fired plant should start in the spring of 2003. The new plant will sell power in the ECAR...

Dynegy begins construction.(Brief Article)
September 1, 2000... Dynegy Inc. has begun construction on the Riverside Generating Project, a 500 MW natural gas-fired peaking facility located near Louisa, Ky. Dynegy, like Panda, plans to sell in the ECAR area. Commercial operation at the plant will begin during...

VESTAR, Great Oaks collaborate.(Brief Article)
September 1, 2000... VESTAR Inc., an affiliate of Cinergy Corp., and the Great Oaks Institute of Technology and Career Development are joining forces in an $8.8 million project to upgrade energy systems at three of the institute's campuses in Ohio. The project is...

Merger births whale of a power producer.(Brief Article)
September 1, 2000... Juno Beach FPL Group Inc. and Entergy Corp. have agreed to combine in a merger of equals, creating the largest power company in the nation. Based on the closing stock prices of both companies on July 28, the combined company will have a...

America and Mexico electrically married at Eagle Pass FACTS dedication.(Brief Article)
September 1, 2000... So you became evil overnight. That's not usual; there are a lot of evil people in the world. Now, if you decide to become a supervillian--the kind with the well-lit, fully-stocked island lair vis-a-vis a Bond flick-you'll need to be smart as...

Utilities auction autos, shelter the elderly and give the masses their MTV.(Brief Article)(Statistical Data Included)
September 1, 2000... In 1998, non-traditional businesses of the U.S. investor-owned electric and gas utility industry accounted for over $131 billion in revenues and $194 billion in assets-and is made up of much more than just non-regulated generation. These...

People & Companies.(Brief Article)
September 1, 2000... Utilities and Associations TXU Electric & Gas has promoted Dan Farell tot he presidency of the distribution divisions of TXU Electric Co. and TXU Gas Co. in Texas. Joining TXU in 1972, Farell has held numerous management positions in the...

Forecast anticipates 769 GW capacity boost.(Brief Article)(Statistical Data Included)
September 1, 2000... Washington, D.C. Electric power companies are planning 769 GW of new capacity worldwide in the next 10 years, representing an investment of about $500 billion and the equivalent of 1,500 utility-scale (500 MW) stations, according to the...

Mergers pare down players; revenues climb while dividend growth rates languish.(Statistical Data Included)
September 1, 2000... Mergers continue to shorten the list of utility holding companies while total revenues keep climbing. This year's rankings, shown in Table 1, included 82 companies (down from last year's 91). Enron Corp. holds on to the number one position with...

Southern Co. pushes north.(Brief Article)
September 1, 2000... Southern Co. has opened an energy marketing operation in Western Canada in conjunction with the signing of an arrangement to manage the business of Pan-Alberta Gas. Southern Company Energy Marketing announced in January that it had agreed, in...

Utility.com expands offerings.(Brief Article)
September 1, 2000... Sempra Energy Trading and Utility com, an Internet utility company, have partnered to provide natural gas to consumers in the deregulated markets via Utility.com's website. Through this agreement, Sempra Energy Trading becomes the preferred...

CP&L, Duke, SCANA offer FERC diamond of RTO.(CP&L Energy, Duke Energy and SCANA Corp.)(Federal Energy Regulatory Commission)(regional transmission organization)(Brief Article)
September 1, 2000... CP&L Energy, Duke Energy and SCANA Corp. have proposed the formation of an independent regional transmission organization (RTO) in compliance with the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission's (FERC) Order 2000. The proposed RTO is to be known as...

Penn. PUC votes "Yea".(Pennsylvania Public Utilities Commission)(Brief Article)(Statistical Data Included)
September 1, 2000... The Pennsylvania Public Utilities Commission approved the merger between PECO Energy Co. and Unicom Corp. Additional regulatory review and approvals of the merger include shareholders of both companies, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission and the...

PA Consulting, Hagler Bailly mix it up.(Brief Article)
September 1, 2000... PA Consulting Group has signed a definitive agreement to acquire the outstanding shares of common stock of Hagler Bailly Inc., an international management and economic consulting firm, in a cash transaction valued at approximately $96 million....

Madison joins transmission Co.(Madison Gas and Electric Co.)(American Transmission Co.)(Brief Article)
September 1, 2000... Madison Gas and Electric Co. (MGE) will join the American Transmission Co. (ATC), which is working to create the nation's first for-profit independent electric transmission system. The ATC expects to be operating by Jan. 1, 2001. Under the ATC...

Three opt for Midwest ISO.(Wisconsin Public Service Corp.)(American Transmission Co.)(Calpine Corp.)(Brief Article)
September 1, 2000... Joining the Midwest ISO as transmission-owner members are Wisconsin Public Service and American Transmission Co. Independent power producer Calpine Corp. joined as non-transmission. The Midwest ISO will assume control of transmission assets...

Puget Sound Energy scores high in service quality while positioning for solid growth.
September 1, 2000... Puget Sound Energy's (PSE) future looks bright. It is one of the lowest cost combined electric/gas companies in the United States in 2000. Merrill Lynch reported in August that PSE ranked third overall in 1999 in terms of cost per customer at...

The ongoing disaggregation of CIS.(Customer Information Systems)
September 1, 2000... Like everything else in energy, Customer Information Systems (CIS) seem to be splintering into factions, or disaggregating, if you will. About three years ago, everyone in the CIS vendor sphere seemed to be touting an "end-to-end" solution...

Selecting CRM software to enhance your company's customer service capabilities.(customer relationship management)
September 1, 2000... As utilities struggle with the implications of re-regulation, enhancing customer relationships becomes increasingly important as a market differentiator. In recent years, CIOs and business unit managers have been asked to implement solutions...

Powertrust.com warms hearts of consumers with free ISP.(Brief Article)
September 1, 2000... PowerTrust.com (www.powertrust.com), an Internet-based energy company that offers energy services for homeowners and small businesses, just announced a new partnership with MillionEyes.com that makes it among the first online energy companies...

The house that intelligence built.(Brief Article)
September 1, 2000... About 13,000 homes in Southern California will be built with structured wiring and broadband access, and at the center of these networks will be Cisco's Internet Home Gateway (iHG), a residential gateway offering, which will distribute the...

Edocs opens its doors to open up standards.(Brief Article)
September 1, 2000... edocs, Inc., an Internet billing and customer management software and services provider, recently announced its membership in the Customer Profile Exchange (CPExchange). The CPExchange Network, which is dedicated to developing an open standard...

Multiple-market billing solution from 'Down Under'.(Brief Article)
September 1, 2000... Australia-based Hansen Corporation recently announced the release of its multiple-market billing solution, hub (Hansen Unified Billing), which integrates utilities and telecommunications billing data into a consolidated bill, hub has been...

ENERGYguide.com gives live customer chat for online shoppers.(Brief Article)
September 1, 2000... ENERGYguide, a Web site that offers electricity and natural gas comparison shopping tools and enables consumers to sign up for energy offers online, just added real-time customer assistance in an effort to help consumers comparison shop for...

"Powering Up" e-transactions in Pennsylvania.(Brief Article)
September 1, 2000... USPowerSolutions is enabling electronic transactions between distribution companies, customer acquisition portals, product vendors and ESPs through its PowerUp-G application, which was selected by Advanced Energy to provide EDI over the...

Breaking records in EBPP adoption.(Brief Article)
September 1, 2000... Solant, Inc., a provider of Electronic Bill Presentment and Payment (EBPP) solutions, just announced that its Rapid Adoption Program has enabled TriVergent Communications, a South Carolina-based communications provider, to achieve...

Sierra & Open-c deliver Open-cIS.(Brief Article)
September 1, 2000... Sierra Systems, a provider of CIS integration services, and Open-c Solutions, an application provider, are teaming up to offer Open-cIS, a customer information services system to both regulated and unregulated energy companies.

National warning: switching games hurt consumers.(Brief Article)
September 1, 2000... The nonprofit United Homeowners Association (UHA) warned consumers across the U.S. that cost savings under energy deregulation may be denied to them by former utility monopolies that are exploiting their still-powerful status by playing...

Brush up your Web sphere.(Brief Article)(Statistical Data Included)
September 1, 2000... The CES International, Convergent Group teleconference of July 20th worked to get one major point across to utilities: make friends with the Web. The Web--and e-business in general--seems to be the major horizon in the electricity...

Fantastic four to form B2B exchange.(Brief Article)
September 1, 2000... American Electric Power (AEP), Carolina Power & Light (CPL), Duke Energy and Unicorn Corp. plan to launch an independent, Internet-based electric transmission business-to-business exchange that offers a single portal for arranging transmission...

Smallworld completes acquisition.(Brief Article)
September 1, 2000... Smallworldwide plc, a provider of network software solutions, has acquired the spatial IT division of Navigant Consulting Inc. Terms of the acquisition were not disclosed.

GE finds it's a Smallworld after all.(Brief Article)
September 1, 2000... General Electric Co. and Smallworldwide plc have reached a definitive agreement in which GE Power Systems will acquire 100 percent of Smallworld's shares for $20 per share, payable in cash. The board of directors of Smallworld has unanimously...

CrossTier.com and Clarus partner up.(Brief Article)
September 1, 2000... CrossTier.com, an Internet professional services firm, and Clarus Corp., a business-to-business e-commerce solution provider, have signed a strategic partnership agreement. CrossTier.com will dedicate 50 consultants to implement Clarus Commerce...

CEC & EPRI bring home the web.(Brief Article)
September 1, 2000... The California Energy Commission (CEC) and the Electric Power Research Institute (EPRI) have created a new community service for California citizens and utility customers. The Jefferson Project, launched as a year-long, 100-home pilot in the...

Carrier Corp. establishes Silicon alliance.(Brief Article)
September 1, 2000... Silicon Energy has finalized a technology alliance and reseller agreement with Carrier Corp., a subsidiary of United Technologies Corp., to market Silicon Energy's enterprise energy management software. In addition to offering Silicon Energy's...

Datamax shows off technology.(Brief Article)
September 1, 2000... Datamax Corp. and Teklynx International, technology partners exhibiting in the Sun Microsystems booth at the Sapphire 2000 conference in June, demonstrated how SENTINEL print agent software can be used on a Sun workstation to print bar code...

Schlumberger agrees with DSSI.(Brief Article)
September 1, 2000... Schlumberger Resource Management Services Inc., a business segment of Schlumberger Limited, has signed a license agreement with Comverge Technologies, a global energy data communications company and a subsidiary of Data Systems & Software Inc....

Skipping Stone enhances site.(Brief Article)
September 1, 2000... The web site of Skipping Stone Inc. (www.skippingstone.com), an energy industry consulting firm, has been upgraded and enhanced with added interactivity and greater ease of navigation.

"PersonalView" unveiled.(LiveData Inc.)(Brief Article)
September 1, 2000... LiveData Inc., a developer of the LiveData family of enterprise integration products for the utility and energy industry, has "PersonalView," its new web personalization manager, up and running in a preview application at the company's web site...

Ameren launches software.(energy curtailment program)(Brief Article)(Product Announcement)
September 1, 2000... Ameren Data & Metering Specialties offers Internet software for wholesale energy curtailment programs--the first such software created by a utility affiliate for use by suppliers involved in wholesale energy curtailment programs. By allowing...

France's FTZ jumps the pond.(marketing for SchemElect)(Brief Article)
September 1, 2000... FTZ, a leading French developer of CAD software for electrical systems, has begun marketing its flagship product, SchemElect, in North America. The key strength of SchemElect is its ability to integrate the circuit design of wiring with...

Making money & taking names: Aquila unveils new trading floor, reveals broadband push.(Aquila Energy Inc.)(Statistical Data Included)
September 1, 2000... A mid much Kansas City-bred hoopla and press paparazzi, Aquila Energy Inc. unveiled its spacious new 22,000-square-foot trading floor last month, along with ambitious plans for growth in e-business and broadband trading. A wholly owned...

Weather gurus announce new Web-based analysis tools for traders.(Weather Services International and Energy Security Analysis Inc.)(Brief Article)
September 1, 2000... Weather Services International (WSI) and Energy Security Analysis Inc. (ESAI) are debuting new decision-support services explicitly for energy traders. The Webbased subscription services, Energycast PowerTrader and GasTrader, integrate with...

Texas goes "e" with Enermetrix.(Enermetrix.com Exchange)(Brief Article)
September 1, 2000... Maynard, Mass.-based Enermetrix, a provider of Internet commerce platforms for energy, announced that TXU Energy Services, a wholly owned subsidiary of TXU, has selected the Enermetrix.com Exchange to serve its customers in Texas and the United...

RedMeteor.com partners with SAGA SOFTWARE.(trading exchange integration partnership)(Brief Article)
September 1, 2000... RedMeteor.com, a global, Internet-based, commodities exchange for crude oil, refined products, natural gas liquids and electricity, announced a trading exchange integration partnership with SAGA SOFTWARE Inc., a provider of e-business...

Decisioneering releases upgraded Crystal Ball.(software product introduction)(Brief Article)(Product Announcement)
September 1, 2000... Decsisioneering Inc. released its Crystal Ball 2000 Professional and Standard Editions, the latest release of the company's risk analysis, forecasting and optimization software. Crystal Ball is a Microsoft Excel add-in that uses Monte Carlo...

EnronOnline hits the 'Street' for prices.(HoustonStreet Exchange, Enron Corp.)(Brief Article)
September 1, 2000... HoustonStreet Exchange has signed a Memorandum of Understanding with Enron stating that North American electricity and natural gas prices posted on EnronOnline will automatically be posted on HoustonStreet.com. Traders will be able to act on...

FEA "Triples" its reach with new system alliance.(Financial Engineering Associates Inc. (FEA) and Triple Point Technology, Inc)(Brief Article)
September 1, 2000... Financial Engineering Associates Inc. (FEA) and Triple Point Technology, Inc. are now partnered to integrate FEA's risk management and pricing models with Triple Point's transaction management system. Already, Triple Point has integrated FEA's...

Algo Suite uses mark-to-future framework.(Algorithmic Solutions Corp.)(Brief Article)
September 1, 2000... Algorithmic's new Algo Suite product claims to integrate the market, credit, liquidity risk in a risk architecture that builds on its four proven core components: Algo Market (measures and optimizes market risks), Aigo ALM (measures and manages...

IntercontinentalExchange gains liquidity.(American Electic Power Co.; Duke Energy Corp.)(Brief Article)
September 1, 2000... In July, American Electric Power, Aquila Energy, Duke Energy, El Paso Energy, Reliant Energy and Southern Company Energy Marketing joined the IntercontinentalExchange, an Internet trading platform formed in March by BP Amoco, Deutsche Bank AG,...

Utilities, consumers racing to rack up renewables.(Oakland, California; Chicago, Illinois)(Brief Article)
September 1, 2000... God, it seems, is keen on green power. The Episcopal Church opted to use renewables at its general convention in Denver this summer. That may not seem so significant to an industry a bit more concerned with keeping the lights on than tracking...

Utilities lay out a grand Enporion.(Enporion, an open global procurement exchange for the energy industry)(Brief Article)
September 1, 2000... Atlanta A group of North American utilities and their partners have announced the formation of Enporion, an open global procurement exchange for the energy industry. The initial founders group includes Allegheny Energy Inc., New...

Hotel industry shows off first microturbine.(La Quinta Inns Inc.; TXU Energy Services)(Brief Article)
September 1, 2000... A three-story, 140 room La Quinta Inn and Suites north of the Dallas/Ft. Worth airport has become what is believed to be the first hotel in the nation to install a microturbine to generate its own electricity. During the trial run of what is a...

Polar Works gets cooler.(new, desiccant-based inlet air cooling system)(Brief Article)
September 1, 2000... Polar Works LLC has successfully operated an integrated prototype of its new, desiccant-based inlet air cooling system designed for gas turbine power plants. The prototype study, conducted by AIL Research Inc., found that the new system can...

LADWP bolsters solar.(The Los Angeles Department of Water and Power contracts AstroPower Inc.)(Brief Article)
September 1, 2000... The Los Angeles Department of Water and Power (LADWP), the largest municipal utility in the U.S., has awarded AstroPower Inc. a $6 million contract to supply solar electric power modules. The largest single award for solar power since utility...

BIOTEMP gets kudos.(ABB Power T and D Company Inc. product awards)(Brief Article)
September 1, 2000... R&D Magazine has named ABB Power T&D Co.'s BIOTEMP insulating fluid as one of the year's top 100 inventions. BIOTEMP is a biodegradable vegetable-oil-based dielectric insulating fluid used in electrical transformers. The product reduces the...

DOE teams with ALSTOM.(The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) has awarded ALSTOM Power a contract)(Brief Article)
September 1, 2000... The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) has awarded ALSTOM Power a contract worth approximately $1.9 million to develop an infurnace combustion system that will reduce NO emissions from coal-fired plants below 0.15 lb/MMBtu levels without...

PPL Corp. trumpets new equipment.(emissions reduction)(Brief Article)
September 1, 2000... PPL Corp. has completed new air quality equipment on unit two of its Montour plant that will reduce [NO.sub.x] emissions. (Construction of a new SCR system began in August 1999 at the company's two coal-fired generating units near...

ABB authorizes repair centers.(ABB Automation)(Brief Article)
September 1, 2000... ABB Automation has opened the first of three global, factory-certified centers of excellence for industrial repair services in Columbus, Ohio. Beyond its existing factory repair facilities. ABB Automation is consolidating its testing, repair...

Calpine to buy turbines.(Calpine Corp. will purchase 21 model 7FB turbines from GE Power Systems)(Brief Article)
September 1, 2000... Calpine Corp. will purchase 21 model 7FB turbines from GE Power Systems. The agreement marks the company's first large volume turbine acquisition from GE and is an important component of Calpine's five-year plan to have 40,000 MW of generation...

EPRI provides maintenance.(Electric Power Research Institute)(Brief Article)
September 1, 2000... EPRI's HRSG (heat recovery steam generator) dependability program offers tools and advice to improve plant performance. Cycle chemistry guidelines halt damage from corrosion and deposition caused by water and sub-optimal steam, and the...

GE launches optimizer.(GE Power Systems is introducing Outage Optimizer,)(Brief Article)
September 1, 2000... GE Power Systems is introducing Outage Optimizer, an online tool enabling owners of GE gas and steam turbine generators to improve their outage planning and asset optimization. Outage Optimizer is accessed from www.gepower.com, a single channel...

S&S Energy to provide for university.(Vanderbilt University, gas turbine generator sets)(Brief Article)
September 1, 2000... S&S Energy Products will deliver two GE-5 gas turbine generator sets to Vanderbilt University for a new cogeneration plant. (GE recently renamed its PGT line the GE-2, GE-s and GE-10 gas turbines.) The GE-5 turbines at Vanderbilt will each be...

WORRY WORKS TO YOUR ADVANTAGE.(Brief Article)
September 1, 2000... Worry is a great common denominator. Kings worry. Paupers worry. Children worry. And so do you and I. Little wonder, when you consider that worry is based on insecurity, a sense of inadequacy--either real or imagined--or a fear of failure...

FINDING YOUR SOLUTION.(Brief Article)
September 1, 2000... Faced with the task of solving a problem, most people recognize that they must first gather the facts. But the facts seldom point to just one solution; problems often have many solutions, which vary in effectiveness and practicality. The...

BOOSTING CREATIVITY.(Brief Article)
September 1, 2000... How's your creativity? Not the kind that lets you paint or sculpt, but the kind that helps you solve problems by developing innovative and imaginative solutions. If you're stuck in a creative rut, try these suggestions: * Cultivate the...

10 TESTED WAYS TO BE MISERABLE.(Brief Article)
September 1, 2000... Tired of being content with your lot? Looking for ways to cloud your day? Here are 10 surefire rules for a more dismal existence: * forget the many good things you have and emphasize the few you lack. * convince yourself that money is...