Consolidated

Consolidated Edison Inc. called on FERC last Tuesday to enactmechanisms to limit the potential for price spikes in the New Yorkwholesale power market this summer.

Consolidated Edison called on FERC yesterday to protect itscustomers this summer by instituting mechanisms to reduce potentialprice spikes in the New York wholesale power market.

Consolidated Edison said last week the Connecticut Department of Public Utility Control’s (DPUC) conditional approval last week of its merger with Northeast Utilities could kill the transaction (see NGI, Oct. 2).

As part of its house cleaning following its merger withConsolidated Natural Gas, Dominion Resources announced Friday thatit has agreed to sell to GE Capital Commercial Finance $948 millionin commercial loans held by First Source Financial, a unit of itsDominion Capital subsidiary.

The Connecticut Department of Public Utility Control finallypassed down its much-delayed approval of Consolidated Edison’s(CEI) acquisition of Northeast Utilities (NU). The problem is,neither company, nor the state’s attorney general, is markingDPUC’s heavily conditional approval in the win column.

KeySpan Corp. and Consolidated Edison have canceled plans tobuild a gas-fired power plant in Brooklyn. The companies said theywill not follow through on an option to buy the Waterfront site onwhich the 500 MW plant was to be developed. A spokesman said theproject had become uneconomic because of a recent ruling by the NewYork State Department of Environmental Conservation on anotherpower project located along the Waterfront. The ruling restrictedthe amount of river water that could be used for cooling.Construction cost estimates also were higher than first expected.KeySpan and ConEd had planned to build the plant on the East Riverin Brooklyn to supply the power-hungry New York City market, whichremains about 300 MW shy of a requirement to have 80% of the city’spower supply generated within city boundaries. KeySpan intends tomove forward with its plans to add 250 MW of gas-fired power to its2,100 MW Ravenswood power facility. That expansion is expected tobe in service by summer 2003.

Unocal’s Canadian subsidiary, Unocal Canada Management Ltd., hasconsolidated 96% of the shares of Northrock Resources Ltd., underits ownership in its recent bid to complete the acquisition of theCalgary-based oil and natural gas exploration and productioncompany.

FERC has sent Dominion Resources and its merged partner,Consolidated Natural Gas (CNG), back to the drawing board to expandthe scope of the pipeline marketing affiliate rule to apply to allenergy affiliates within their corporate family.

FERC sent Dominion Resources and its merged partner,Consolidated Natural Gas (CNG), back to the drawing board last weekto expand the scope of the pipeline marketing-affiliate rule toapply to all energy affiliates within their corporate family. Thisaction is in keeping with the Commission’s crackdown on abusesbetween pipelines and affiliates.