Heeding President Clinton’s call for all federal agencies to cut energy use by 30% by 2005, the Department of Energy announced a second round of energy efficiency contracts for upgrades in government facilities. The first group of contracts was awarded last May for facilities in the western U.S. The special DOE contracting program-called Financing Renewable Energy and Efficiency, or “Free Savings”-is expected to attract $5 billion in private-sector funding to install energy-efficient and renewable energy technology in 50,000 federal buildings nationwide by 2000. The equipment is paid for entirely from energy savings and therefore does not require any taxpayer funding. This round of contracts is valued at $750 million and includes agreements with Duke Engineering and Services, Energy Pacific subsidiary CES Way International, Northern States Power subsidiary Energy Masters, ERI Services, Honeywell Inc. and Johnson Controls. The companies will install renewable energy systems and energy efficient chillers, lighting, monitoring and control systems in DOE, Department of Transportation and other government facilities in nine southeastern states and two territories.

Pacific Telesis Group signed an agreement with Enron Energy Services (EES) that makes it the country’s largest customer to switch electricity providers in the deregulated marketplace, Enron said. Pacific Telesis is the parent of 10 subsidiaries, including Pacific Bell, the regional local phone company. The company chose Enron to supply electricity and energy management and efficiency projects for the company’s 8,000 facilities in California. The agreement includes a four-year commodity purchase as well as Telesis’ selection of Enron as the preferred provider of energy products and services, including retrofitting existing equipment, enhancing power quality at facilities and providing consolidated billing and energy-related asset management.

Five Florida utilities, members of the OASIS Association, will use computer networks, including the Internet, to offer power transmission capacity for sale. Florida Power & Light, Tampa Electric, Florida Power Corp., Jacksonville Electric Authority and the City of Tallahassee represent more than $3 billion in transmission assets. They are using ENX OASIS (Open Access Same-Time Information System), a product developed by IBM and Siemens. Highlights of ENX OASIS include 24-hour-a-day, seven day-a-week customer service, Federal Energy Regulatory Commission compliance, and a set pricing structure, which helps the utilities manage the cost associated with forecasting volume.

Southern Union Co. completed the acquisition of Atlantic Utilities Corp. and subsidiaries, a natural gas and propane distribution company headquartered in Miami. The purchase, effective Dec. 31, 1997, was made with cash and common stock valued at about $22 million. The company now has about 997,500 customers, making it about 16th in the nation in terms of number of customers. The company’s sales program has targeted the [Florida] area for nontraditional applications of natural gas for year-round use. These include natural gas-powered air-conditioning, natural gas-fired cogeneration, desiccant technology, gas-fired peak shaving equipment and microturbine generators.

NRG Generating‘s Grays Ferry project began commercial operations earlier this month after approval of performance and reliability tests. The 150 MW gas-fired cogeneration project in Philadelphia, PA, will sell its electric output to PECO Energy and its steam output to Trigen Energy.

TECO Energy subsidiary TECO Oil & Gas agreed to sell offshore Gulf of Mexico assets to American Resources Offshore for $57.5 million. The properties include 40 federal lease blocks and one Texas state lease block in the shallow waters of the Gulf covering a total of 197,468 acres with four currently producing wells and one additional well.

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