Commerce

Nicor Gas of Naperville, IL, received approval from the IllinoisCommerce Commission (ICC) for a performance-based rate (PBR) planfor gas costs. The company filed the original proposal with the ICCMarch 2, and, with some changes, the ICC approved the plan. NicorGas has 14 days to accept or reject the modified plan. During anine-month review process, testimony was presented by interestedparties including the ICC staff, the Citizens Utility Board and theCook County States Attorney’s office.

energyOn.com, an e-commerce company offering a consumer resourceWeb site which lets customers in deregulated gas and electricmarkets compare service offers, has expanded its service territoryto include New York, New Jersey and Pennsylvania. The companyalready provided information on markets in Ohio, and expects to addmany more states in the near future. Information on gas andelectric supplier choices in California will be launched later thismonth, the company said.

AMDAX.com, an e-commerce company based in San Diego, CA,unveiled plans yesterday to host an Internet-based real-timeutility auction system, in an attempt to give California gas andelectric consumers another option to secure their energy needs. Thecompany said it was in the midst of finalizing numerous contractswith electric generators, gas and electric marketers and end users.Currently, the auction is set to start Nov.1.

Southern California Gas Co. (SoCalGas) launched its newestversion of GasSelect, an automated gas scheduling and energymanagement system. The e-commerce application is available tosubscribers through www.gasselect.com for real-time submission ofgas nominations, trading gas delivery imbalances in a secondarymarket, and for gas consumption information from electronic metersinstalled at customer sites. GasSelect is used to manage thedelivery of 1 Tcf into Southern California for both SoCalGas andSan Diego Gas & Electric.

Illinois Power Co. received unanimous approval last week fromthe Illinois Commerce Commission to transfer all its fossil-fueledgenerating stations and associated support staff to a newsubsidiary of parent company Illinova Corp. The move still requiresFERC approval. If completed it would be the first time an electricutility was allowed to transfer its entire fossil generating fleetto a separate unregulated affiliated company, Illinova said. Thespin-down was one of the requirements set out in a merger agreementsigned last month by Illinova and Dynegy. That merger is expectedto be completed early next year.

Illinois Power Co. received unanimous approval yesterday fromthe Illinois Commerce Commission to transfer all its fossil-fueledgenerating stations and associated support staff into a newsubsidiary of parent company Illinova Corp. The move still requiresFERC approval. If completed it would be the first time an electricutility was allowed to transfer its entire fossil generating fleetinto a separate unregulated affiliated company, Illinova said. Thespin-down was one of the requirements set out in a merger agreementsigned last month by Illinova and Dynegy. That merger is expectedto be completed early next year.

Peoples Energy said it was “extremely disappointed” in orders byIllinois Commerce Commission (ICC) that would sharply reduce thegas rates the LDC and affiliate North Shore Gas could charge theircustomers under fixed-price plans filed last fall. The utilitiessaid they cannot accept the ICC rulings and informed the agencythat they will remain instead under their existing pricingstructure.

Nicor Gas has filed a performance-based rate proposal with theIllinois Commerce Commission that would allow the company and itscustomers to save money if Nicor’s commodity, transportation andstorage costs are lower than a fluctuating benchmark. The benchmarkwill be based on a bushel of published gas price indexes, plusaverage transportation costs over the prior year and actual storagecosts. The PBR is expected to be in place starting next January.

Nicor Gas earlier this week submitted a proposal to the IllinoisCommerce Commission (ICC) that, if approved, would provide customerchoice for the first time to single-family residential natural gascustomers in the northern part of the state.