Dynegy has fired up its first constructed, owned and operatednatural gas-fired peaking plant, the 250 MW Rocky Road Power Plantnear Chicago, in time to serve the summer air conditioning load.Dynegy plans to sell the power generated at the merchant powerplant into the wholesale electricity market. As a peaking plant itwill run on an as-needed basis. The Rocky Road plant is part of thecompany’s previously announced plan to back up its trading unitwith a $5 billion generation expansion program. Dynegy is aiming toown or control more than 70,000 MW of generating capacity by 2003.It has 6,800 gross MW operating or under construction and recentlyannounced plans for two natural gas-fired 500 MW plants, one inHeard County, GA and another in Oldham County, KY.

Leviathan Gas Pipeline announced it has increased its interestin three offshore Gulf of Mexico assets by completing a deal withKN’s Natural Gas Pipeline of America (NGPL) worth $51 million.Leviathan, a publicly held master limited partnership whose generalpartner is El Paso Energy, increased its interest from 40% to 60%in the High Island Offshore System (HIOS) and East Breaks GatheringCo. and from 33% to 67% in the U-T Offshore System (UTOS). TheHIOS, located off the eastern coast of Texas, has a total capacityof 1.8 Bcf. UTOS transports gas from the HIOS terminus to multipleprocessing facilities in onshore Louisiana. East Breaks GatheringCo. is constructing an 85-mile 400 MMcf/d pipeline which willtransport gas from an Exxon and BP Amoco exploration and productionjoint venture in Alaminos Canyon Block 25.

FERC yesterday approved the merger of BEC Energy and neighboringCommonwealth Energy in a deal valued at about $950 million. BECEnergy is parent of Boston Edison. Commonwealth Energy owns threeelectric utilities, including Commonwealth Electric, CambridgeElectric Light Co. and Canal Electric Co. It also is parent ofCOM/Energy Market Inc., a power marketing subsidiary, and owns twogas companies – Commonwealth Gas Co. and Hopkinton LNG Corp.

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