Wisconsin Energy (WE) is eyeing natural gas distribution infrastructure upgrades as one of several capital investment opportunities in the next two to four years, CEO Gale Klappa told financial analysts Thursday in reporting 2Q2011 earnings of $98 million (41 cents/share), compared with $88 million (37 cent/share) in 2Q2010. Current efforts nationally to update gas pipeline rules and regulations are expected to create the need for more investment in WE’s gas pipeline system, and the company expects to also have the opportunity to buy some existing gas-fired cogeneration facilities that the state of Wisconsin owns and operates. “We still have to deal with aging gas and electric infrastructure,” said Klappa. “I am very confident we will be seeing additional capital spending in the 2013-14 time frame related to additional regulation on gas distribution and pipeline safety. Those issues are being debated right now by FERC [the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission] and the Congress.”

Plans have been put on hold for the High Plains Gasification-Advanced Technology Center, a project planned by GE Energy and the University of Wyoming (UW). According to the office of Gov. Matt Mead, the project’s investment plan “anticipated more progress toward certainty in the future of federal energy policy.” GE Energy paused the project “until uncertainty around coal utilization is reduced,” and future investments “will be paced by the development of clear federal energy policy,” according to a Mead spokesman. GE will reassess the project in 18-24 months, said Keith White, general manager of GE Energy’s gasification business. Mead had considered the gasification project an example of Wyoming’s cutting edge energy technologies (see Daily GPI, Jan. 14).

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