GPU Energy said settlement negotiations with parties involved inthe company’s stranded cost and unbundling case will continue as aregulatory deadline passed last week. “We have notified the NewJersey Board of Public Utilities that although we have not reacheda settlement at this time, we will continue the negotiationprocess,” said Mike Filippone, director of rates for New Jersey.

GPU Energy officials and representatives from interveningparties have been engaged in settlement talks since March 11. Thenegotiations are aimed at settling a number of issues concerningGPU Energy’s restructuring that were outlined in the New JerseyEnergy Deregulation Bill signed into law last month.

“Our goal is to reach a fair and balanced settlement. Inextending the negotiations, we hope to do just that,” Filipponenoted.

Late last year New Jersey utility holding company GPU Inc. soldits non-nuclear generating assets for $2.62 billion – 2.5 timesbook value or $510 per kilowatt. The majority of generating assetswere bought by French- and Japanese-owned Sithe Energies Inc. ofNew York City, which bought assets in New Jersey, Pennsylvania andMaryland. The deal made Sithe the largest U.S. independent powerproducer.

GPU Energy is the trade name for the three domestic utilitysubsidiaries of GPU, Inc. The GPU Energy companies, Jersey CentralPower & Light, Metropolitan Edison and Pennsylvania Electric,serve more than two million electric customers in an areaencompassing about half the land areas in New Jersey andPennsylvania.

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