The New England Council and the New England Governors’Conference will present “Winter Fuels Outlook: A National andRegional Perspective” in Boston today, offering insight fromindustry, academic and government officials about the comingmonths. Massachusetts Gov. A. Paul Cellucci, who also chairs theNew England Governors’ Conference, will speak, as well as James T.Brett, CEO, New England Council; Roger Cooper, American GasAssociation; John Felmy, American Petroleum Institute; and MarkRodekohr, Energy Information Administration, U.S. Department ofEnergy. The conference has been called in response to a recentprediction by the DOE that with a “normal” heating season, naturalgas prices likely will increase by as much as 50% this winter.Similar predictions have been made about the cost of heating oil.To learn more about today’s conference, contact David Graves of RDWGroup Inc. at (401) 521-2700, extension 106.

PG&E Corp.’s National Energy Group signed a 10-year tollingagreement with DTE Energy Services, giving PG&E marketingcontrol of its first generation asset in the Midwest power market.Under the terms of the deal, PG&E E Energy Trading – Power LPhas contracted for long-term capacity rights at DTEES’s 160 MWgas-fired Georgetown peaking facility, located in suburbanIndianapolis. The facility began commercial operation June 1. “Thispartnership gave us a timely entrance into the region’s powermarket. With restructuring gaining a foothold in Michigan, andlegislation moving forward elsewhere in the region, PG&ENational Energy Group is poised to create tremendous value forcustomers through both its marketing and generation arms,” saidPG&E’s Sarah Barpoulis.

TradersNews Energy, based in Houston, launched a wholesale powerindustry hourly pricing index yesterday for the Cinergy tradinghub. The index was developed in response to traders’ requests forways to hedge their risks against the market’s volatility. Thefirst of several hourly indices is expected to become a benchmarkfor financial hourly trading and for hedging instruments such asswaps and spreads. The TNI also will allow traders to extrapolatelong-term pricing and determine power replacement costs. The indexwill track the range and weighted average price of trading done foreach on-peak hour, Monday through Friday. If no trades are reportedfor an hour, “indicative” pricing, derived from the tightestbid/ask spreads for that period, will be provided. The index isavailable at www.tradersnewspower.com.

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