Advent

While water levels in the Pacific Northwest, remaining winter weather in the East and even the advent of war with Iraq all could impact this summer’s natural gas and electricity prices in Nevada, Las Vegas-based Southwest Gas Corp. officials indicated Monday they are not overly concerned. They do admit the short-term future is unclear because of the many widely diverse variables involved.

Noting that the advent of rolling blackouts constitute a threat to the state’s health and welfare, California’s two top legislative leaders Tuesday filed a suit against the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission in the Ninth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals, requesting the court to order the federal regulators to provide just and reasonable wholesale electricity rates.

From the perspective of one of California’s experts on the state’s supply, demand and infrastructure for natural gas, the advent of an explosion of new interstate pipeline and imported liquefied natural gas (LNG) projects into the state is proving to be a very pleasurable diversion from the state’s well-publicized real-time energy woes.

From the perspective of one of California’s experts on the state’s supply, demand and infrastructure for natural gas, the advent of an explosion of new interstate pipeline and imported liquefied natural gas (LNG) projects into the state is proving to be a very pleasurable diversion from the state’s well-publicized real-time energy woes.

In a new report that previews what to expect with the advent ofretail competition in the electric industry, the Texas PublicUtility Commission submitted its findings to the state’slegislature last week. Explaining the problems “some areas of thecountry,” had with deregulation, PUC reported it is convinced thatTexas’ rules will benefit the economy and “bring vibrantcompetition.”

After beginning last week amid some excitement caused by theadvent of genuine hurricane activity in the Atlantic, the marketwent into the weekend on a generally quiet note Friday. Nearly allGulf Coast and Midcontinent/Midwest points were flat, but Northeastcitygates and California saw small declines and most Rockies pipesfell by 15 or more cents.

Preparing for the advent of electric industry restructuring inNevada and a pending merger with Portland General, Sierra PacificResources’ two Nevada power utilities have begun the process ofselling off nearly a billion dollars of fossil-fuel generationplants in a two phase auction seeking preliminary, nonbinding bidsby next month. Book value collectively is just under $1 billion, aSierra Pacific spokesperson said.

Preparing for the advent of electric industry restructuring inNevada and another pending merger with Portland General, SierraPacific Resources’ two Nevada power utilities have begun theprocess of selling off nearly a billion dollars of fossil-fuelgeneration plants in a two phase auction seeking preliminary,nonbinding bids by next month. Book value collectively is “justunder $1 billion,” a Sierra Pacific spokesperson said.

With the advent of ending its electricity rate freeze thissummer and moving to a more volatile pricing environment, San DiegoGas and Electric Co. was given a new incentive rate mechanism todetermine its future utility revenue needs by California regulatorslast week. Current rates will not change because of the new”performance-based ratemaking” (PBR) system, but the system will beused the next time the regulators review SDG&E’s performance.