California

Beverly Marshall, formerly a Washington representative forSouthern California Edison, has been named vice president andgeneral manager of federal government affairs for Duke Energy.

Despite the advent of retail gas and electric competition instates such as California, Georgia, Ohio and Pennsylvania,UtiliCorp United officials do not regret their decision earlierthis year to shelve retail commodity marketing and disband theEnergyOne partnership with PECO Energy. The outlook for retailcompetition is still quite bleak, UtiliCorp Chairman Richard C.Green, Jr. said last week at a press briefing in Washington, D.C.The status of the retail market has not changed, and regulators andlegislators still appear headed in the wrong direction.

Despite the advent of retail gas and electric competition instates such as California, Georgia, Ohio and Pennsylvania,UtiliCorp United officials do not regret their decision earlierthis year to shelve retail commodity marketing and disband theEnergyOne partnership with PECO Energy. The outlook for retailcompetition is still quite bleak, UtiliCorp Chairman Richard C.Green, Jr. said at a press briefing in Washington, D.C. yesterday.The status of the retail market has not changed, and regulators andlegislators still appear headed in the wrong direction.

Pacific Gas and Electric Co. is moving ahead with the sale offive additional power plants, following the California PublicUtilities Commission’s decision this week to lift a temporary haltto the plant auction in response to an appeal by local governmentofficials and a citizens’ action group in San Francisco where twoof the plants are located. PG&E is now authorized to reviewpreliminary bids (“nonbinding expressions of interest”) frompotential buyers.

The start of hourly electricity pricing in California isexpected to be delayed because the state chartered wholesaleelectricity spot market is encountering logistical and technicalproblems. The Board of Directors for the state Power Exchange (PX)meets today to determine how far into July to postpone the openingof the new market. A formal announcement on a new target date isexpected to be made following the board meeting.

CES/Way International was selected by Vandenberg Air Force Basein California and Goodfellow Air Force Base in Texas to provideenergy conservation measures that could yield nearly 20% savings onutility bills. The subsidiary of Sempra Energy Solutions of LosAngeles, is one of 11 energy services companies that werepre-qualified last year under the Department of Defense (DOD)program to implement energy conservation projects in 46 states,Washington, D.C., and Puerto Rico. With a total of up to $1.1billion in potential contracts, CES/Way and the other energycompanies can receive project awards of up to $150 million eachthrough the program. Among the other pre-qualifiers are Honeywell,Johnson Controls, Duke Energy, and Xenergy.

A California Public Utility Commission administrative law judgehas recommended approval of the proposed Pacific Enterprises-EnovaCorp. merger, citing potential savings of $288 million spread overfive years and divided equally between ratepayers and shareholders.