Even as it eyes hundreds of millions of dollars of additional generation and transmission projects outside of California, Pacific Gas and Electric is going to “stick to its knitting,” which means bread-and-butter natural gas and electricity utility distribution, transmission and generation, according to remarks Tuesday by PG&E Corp. CEO Peter Darbee at the Merrill Lynch Global Power and Gas Leaders Conference in New York City.

“Our new focus is how we can make the absolute most out of the assets we have,” Darbee told the audience. “So we are focused on how we expand the services and products we currently offer.” This includes the transportation sector and hybrid electric/gasoline vehicles that can be charged at home and can sell excess power to the grid to meet peak demand during day while charging, he said.

Darbee said PG&E is only interested in buying additional businesses within the natural gas and power distribution and transmission sectors. The company wants to stay close to rate-base regulation operations as its orientation, he said.

“What we are aware of is that…people around the industry are noting that California has moved to one of the better regulatory situations in the country,” Darbee said. “So when we look at other opportunities for growth, we are going to have ask how those other regulatory environments compare to California.”

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