Units of Exelon and Peoples Energy announced that they will jointly develop and operate a 350 MW, natural gas-fired peaker electric plant on Chicago’s southeast side. The plant will provide electricity to the city in periods of high electric demand. Exelon’s wholesale power marketing division, Power Team, will market the energy output of the plant for its affiliate Exelon Generation. Peoples Energy Resources, a subsidiary of Peoples Energy, will provide fuel procurement. The plant will operate only during periods of peak electricity use and emergencies to help ensure reliability of the local and regional electricity supply. Also, eight General Electric turbines, equipped with dry, low NOx burner coal technology to reduce emissions, will be installed. Construction of the plant will take about 10 months and it is targeted to begin operations in late spring 2002.

Chicago-based Peoples Energy took on a little larger Texas flavor last week, announcing that it has almost doubled its current proved reserve base and investment in exploration and production by buying 100% of the interests in 28 oil and natural gas producing wells onshore in South Texas for $120 million. About 91% of the leaseholds are natural gas. In its move to build natural gas reserves, CEO Richard E. Terry said the South Texas acquisition helped Peoples make “significant progress toward our long-term goal of becoming a top-50 owner of natural gas reserves. By increasing our operations in the Gulf Coast region, we strengthen our business and enhance our ability to diversify on growth opportunities.” The new properties include interests in approximately 11,500 gross acres (8,900 net) of developed and undeveloped oil and gas leaseholds, which will be operated by Peoples Energy Production, the production unit. The transaction increases Peoples’ total proved reserves to approximately 130 Bcfe as of March 30, 2001, with current net production approximately 55 MMcfe/d.

NiSource Inc. reported first quarter 2001 net income on Friday of $188.8 million ($0.92 per share), compared to $79.6 million ($0.64 per share) posted during the first quarter 2000. However, the company warned that its results could not be directly compared due to the acquisition of Columbia Energy Group, which was completed on Nov. 1, 2000. “The first-quarter results demonstrate the accretive value of the strategic combination of NiSource-Columbia, and we continue to be on track to meet analyst expectations for 2001,” said Gary L. Neale, NiSource CEO. As previously stated, because of the seasonal nature of the gas business, which accounts for a greater portion of NiSource’s business since the Columbia acquisition, it is expected that the first- and fourth-quarter results will be stronger, and the second- and third-quarter results weaker when compared to NiSource’s historical performance, assuming normal weather patterns. Reflecting the addition of Columbia’s five natural gas distribution subsidiaries, the company’s operating income for gas distribution sky-rocketed from $191.1 million during the first quarter 2000, to $288.1 million for the quarter ended March 31, 2001.

The number of wind generation projects submitted in response to a Bonneville Power Administration (BPA) request for proposals has taken the agency by surprise, with a much higher level of interest in the alternative form of energy than originally anticipated by BPA. “I thought developers would be far enough along with their projects to submit maybe 1,000 MW of projects, but the 25 proposals added up to about 2,600 MW,” said George Darr, BPA’s renewable power resource program manager. And that’s not all. Darr pointed out that if room for expansion included in the proposals is also thrown into the mix, that raises the total to over 4,000 MW of wind power on the sites. Most of the proposed sites are in Oregon, which has 10 projects, and Washington State, with eight sites. The rest are distributed among Idaho, Montana, Wyoming and Canada. BPA will examine the projects in terms of cost, how well they can be integrated into the Northwest power grid and other factors. The agency will select the most promising proposals by the end of May and then begin contract negotiations with developers. Darr hopes to have the first of the projects on line in late 2002 or early 2003. Because wind speed varies, the 2,600 MW capacity of the proposals will likely translate into about 850 MW of power on average.

©Copyright 2001 Intelligence Press Inc. All rights reserved. The preceding news report may not be republished or redistributed, in whole or in part, in any form, without prior written consent of Intelligence Press, Inc.