NiSource and Columbia Energy Group filed their merger applicationwith the Pennsylvania Public Utility Commissionyesterday. Pittsburgh-based Columbia Gas of Pennsylvania, Inc., aColumbia subsidiary, provides retail gas service to 389,000 customersin 27 counties. Pennsylvania is the first state to be asked to approvethe merger, which was announced Feb. 28 and is expected to close bythe end of 2000 (see Daily GPI, Feb. 29). The combined company will servemore than 4.1 million customers primarily located in nine states. Itsoperations will span the high-growth energy corridor stretching fromthe Gulf of Mexico to New England, creating the largest natural gasdistributor east of the Rocky Mountains. The companies said theproposed merger will have no impact on Columbia Gas of Pennsylvania’srates, terms and conditions now approved by the Commission. However,customers are expected to benefit from the increased electriccompetition from gas-fueled distributed generation, as well aspotential gas cost savings gained through the efficient use of thecombined upstream pipeline and storage assets of the new company.

Canada’s National Energy Board (NEB) will hold a public hearingon an application from AEC Suffield Gas Pipeline Inc. (AECSuffield) to construct and operate a gas pipeline from southeasternAlberta to southwestern Saskatchewan to be known as the NorthSuffield Pipeline. The hearing will begins at 9 a.m. June 26 in theboard’s hearing room, second floor, 444 Seventh Ave. SW, Calgary,Alberta. Any person wishing to intervene in the hearing must filean intervention by May 4. AEC Suffield applied to construct 60miles of 16-inch pipeline and associated control facilities. Thepipeline would begin on the western side of the Suffield MilitaryBlock, extend along the northern boundary of the Suffield MilitaryBlock and then extend east and south to tie-in to the existing AECSuffield meter station, which connects to TransCanada PipelineLtd.’s system near Burstall, Saskatchewan. The pipeline will havecapacity of about 190 MMcf/d. The estimated capital cost of theproject is $22.3 million. AEC Suffield is planning an in-servicedate of Nov. 1.

Enron Energy signed an agreement to be an equity partner andofficial energy sponsor of indoor snowboarding venue The Glacier ofAnaheim, CA. The multi-million dollar deal includes engineering andconstruction of the facility’s mechanical, electrical, and plumbinginfrastructure and a guaranty of its performance. In addition todesigning, engineering, and constructing the overall system, EnronEnergy will operate and maintain the Glacier’s central plant andsnowmaking system. The facility houses many separate climatecontrolled zones. The snowboarding area is maintained at a constant30-degree temperature with low humidity. This environment iscritical to maintaining quality snow conditions. Enron also signeda $1 million Official Energy Sponsorship with the Glacier project.The $130 million project will be adjacent to Edison InternationalField of Anaheim, just a few blocks from the Arrowhead Pond ofAnaheim and Disneyland Park.

Lukens Consulting Group Inc. of Houston signed a licensing andconsulting services agreement with Dominion Services Co., Inc.Under the terms of the agreement Dominion will license the StorageValuation Advisor software product from Lukens, and Lukens willprovide Dominion with consulting services related to theimplementation and customization of the software. The StorageValuation Advisor is an integrated suite of analytical tools thatenables buyers and sellers of storage services to estimate thefuture value of storage based on the shape of the forward curve andvolatility of cash and futures market prices. It is based on realoption theory, and incorporates much of the latest thinking oneconometric modeling energy commodity markets.

Southern Company said it has sold an additional 125 MW ofwholesale power in the Southeast. Southern Wholesale Energy, themarketing and trading arm representing Southern Company’sgenerating plants in the region, recently signed a long-termcontract for peaking power with North Carolina Municipal PowerAgency No. 1 (NCMPA1). Power to supply the NCMPA1 contract will begenerated from existing wholesale plant capacity that is owned andoperated by Georgia Power, Southern Company’s electric utilitysubsidiary in Georgia. Because this power will serve the wholesalemarket, the new contract will not affect electric rates paid byGeorgia Power customers. NCMPA1, made up of 19 municipal electricsystems in western North Carolina, notified Duke Power in Januarythat it would no longer purchase supplemental energy and capacityfrom the company beginning Jan. 1.

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