Niagara Mohawk Power Corp. said last week that it expects electricity supplies in its upstate New York service area this summer to be adequate to meet demand. Niagara Mohawk provides electricity to more than 1.5 million customers in the state and delivers natural gas to more than 540,000.

“We have hedged our summer supply portfolio assuming normal weather, unit availability and performance,” said Clement Nadeau, vice president of electric delivery.

Under normal weather conditions in June, July and August, Niagara Mohawk estimates its total energy requirements will be approximately 9,750 gigawatt hours (GWh). Of this amount, approximately 2,150 GWh are part of an energy pool Niagara Mohawk delivers to large industrial customers who have elected to buy power on the open market.

To hedge its remaining summer load projections of 7,600 GWh, Niagara Mohawk has set up these power supply agreements:

Some of the contracts are indexed to fuel prices for both natural gas and oil, and in those instances Niagara Mohawk said it has completed separate transactions to hedge against fuel price volatility. Niagara Mohawk Holdings, the parent company based in Syracuse, NY, is expected to close a deal this summer with National Grid Group Plc of the United Kingdom, which agreed to acquire the company last year (see NGI, Sept. 11, 2000).

©Copyright 2001 Intelligence Press Inc. Allrights reserved. The preceding news report may not be republishedor redistributed, in whole or in part, in any form, without priorwritten consent of Intelligence Press, Inc.