2000

The Senate Commerce Committee yesterday voted out pipelinesafety reauthorization legislation that the natural gas pipelineindustry is billing as a “gross overreaction” to an explosionbrought on by a rupture in a products pipeline last June.

Anticipating that its joint settlement will be approved by stateregulators by this fall, Sempra Energy’s utility subsidiaries arepushing a new “Customer Choice” campaign designed to increase thenatural gas volumes residential and small business customers buyfrom energy service providers (ESPs). Sempra is stressing to itsutility employees that the increased ESP business cannot beachieved without “major opening up” of the gas markets in thestate.

Southern Energy agreed last week to purchase four PotomacElectric Power Co. (Pepco) power plants for $2.65 billion, givingthe power generator an additional 5,889 MW of capacity, and directaccess to the mid-Atlantic states market.

PG&E Corp. is the latest energy giant to seek a toehold inthe fast-growing Arizona merchant power plant market, gaining aninitial state approval last week, but facing up to a half-dozencounty, state and federal environmental reviews for a proposed $500million, 1,040 MW natural gas-fired plant near Phoenix.

Columbia Energy Group shareholders today are expected to approvethe company’s proposed merger with NiSource Inc., which wouldcreate a mega energy powerhouse serving nine states and more than 4million customers, stretching from Chicago in the west to NewEngland in the east and south to the Gulf of Mexico. NiSourceshareholders gave a thumbs up yesterday, with nearly 65% of theoutstanding shares in approval, representing 80% of the sharesvoted.

Tennessee Gas Pipeline is holding an open season through May 31to solicit interest in its Mississippi 500 Line Expansion Project.Tennessee expects the expansion to involve about 700,000 Dth/d offirm service starting June 1, 2001.

PowerSpring Inc. is preparing to muscle its way into the virtualmarketplace next month, offering commercial and industrial energyusers an online shopping area to take better advantage ofderegulation. Officials last week touted the launch of its newInternet site, www.powerspring.com, promising energy users the “bigplayer” benefits of deregulation – market clout and savings.Through its website, PowerSpring plans to manage energy use for itscustomers by using aggregated customer demand, an online auctionand customized reports. Sidney Hinton was named president and CEOof PowerSpring at the launch last week, which coincided with parentcompany Metretek’s annual shareholder meeting in Denver. The newcompany was first announced last month (see NGI, April 17).”PowerSpring has the potential to revolutionize the purchase andmanagement of energy among an ever-growing universe of commercialenergy users,” Hinton said. PowerSpring’s virtual energymarketplace, designed by e-business partner Scient, will offer asingle source for purchasing and managing energy, with customersreceiving one consolidated bill. Initially, the service will onlybe available to commercial and industrial natural gas users,however, as deregulation grows, PowerSpring plans to expand thecoverage area.

The cash market managed to rebound Monday from the weekend’smild softness, but the bounce back up was small. Monday’s quotesranged from flat to almost a dime higher, with most of the upticksless than a nickel.

More toxic pollution is emitted from electric utilities andmines than any other industries in the U.S. — up to 63% of thenation’s reported releases — according to the U.S. EnvironmentalProtection Agency. The EPA released its annual Toxic ChemicalInventory Report last week, which for the first time includedfossil fuel-burning utilities – but it wasn’t a “first” for whichthe industries would most like to be known.