Against the backdrop of a recent decision by Connecticut Attorney General Richard Blumenthal to investigate the actions of power suppliers during this month’s bone-chilling freeze that covered much of the Northeast, FERC Chairman Pat Wood last Wednesday told reporters that he has seen no indications that the power market in New England was manipulated.

“I’ve seen nothing that makes me think that at all,” Wood said in response to a question following an appearance before “Transmission Summit 2004,” which is being sponsored by Infocast Inc.

Blumenthal has cited allegations that some generators sold natural gas on the spot market that could have otherwise been used for their own power plants during the recent power supply crunch (see NGI, Jan. 26).

Wood noted that FERC has launched an inquiry looking at “the allegations that people made on both sides” in the wake of the recent cold snap.

ISO New England recently met with state and federal regulators in separate meetings in Nashua, NH, and Washington, DC, to provide them with a status report of both system conditions and an update on its comprehensive review of the situation.

Wood noted that “the gas needs were pretty strong that day, so the electric generators said, ‘The ISO says they don’t need me today, so I’ll go ahead and sell it to the gas market.'” Wood added: “I think what may have happened is — well, we’ll look into what happened. I’ll not finish that sentence.”

In announcing his probe, Blumenthal said that “reliable and deeply disturbing information has come to our attention that certain electricity generating companies may have sold natural gas that could and should have been used for providing electricity to Connecticut consumers — seeking to profit from the exceptionally low temperatures and high gas prices.”

Meanwhile, ISO New England recently refuted Blumenthal’s suggestion that the grid operator may have acted “deceptively and misleadingly” in connection with the availability of power plants during recent extreme winter temperatures and conditions earlier this month.

“Given our efforts, and the success in keeping the lights on during extreme weather and highly volatile operating conditions, we strongly object to the baseless allegations that we acted ‘deceptively or misleadingly’ in connection with last week’s energy situation,” ISO New England said in a prepared statement issued on Jan. 24.

©Copyright 2004 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.