Dynegy

Dynegy Inc. and Energy Capital Partners, through a newly formed joint venture, will buy ENGIE’s fossil portfolio, including 8,731 MW of generation capacity in the ERCOT, PJM and ISO-New England footprints, for $3.3 billion, a deal that would increase Dynegy’s natural gas and combined cycle fleet, the companies said Thursday.

Dynegy Inc. on Tuesday again lashed out at American Electric Power Co. and FirstEnergy Corp.’s proposed power purchase agreements with Ohio regulators, offering an alternative and saying it could save the state’s consumers billions of dollars by providing power at lower costs and building more natural gas-fired power plants.

In separate deals involving more than 5,000 MW of natural gas-fired electric generation capacity, Houston-based Dynegy Inc. said Friday it has signed definitive agreements worth $6.25 billion to buy 21 power plants and related businesses from Duke Energy and Energy Capital Partners (ECP).

After 14 hours of deliberation, jurors in the false gas price reporting case of former Dynegy gas trader Michele Valencia and former El Paso Merchant Energy vice president Greg Singleton reached a verdict on some counts but not others.

U.S. District Judge Nancy Atlas postponed the trial date of Michelle Valencia, a former Dynegy Inc. energy trader, to Sept. 29 until prosecutors decide whether to appeal the judge’s decision to dismiss three charges related to making false reports to an industry publication. Valencia’s wire fraud charges related to the bogus reporting were not dismissed. Atlas earlier this month postponed the trial date of Todd Geiger, an ex-El Paso Corp. trader, to Sept. 29 also. He too is accused of wire fraud in making false reports to an industry publication (see Daily GPI, Sept. 4). Atlas in August dismissed the false reporting charges against Valencia and Geiger, ruling they were too broad and unconstitutional. Atlas said the Commodities Exchange Act, upon which prosecutors made the charges, lacked a requirement that the person charged have shown intent, and not just made false statements, which are protected as free speech. Prosecutors have until the end of September to decide whether to appeal the rulings. Valencia and Geiger, who have pleaded not guilty, remain free on bond.

Dynegy Inc. has named Layne J. Albert as vice president – tax. In this capacity, Albert will be responsible for all tax matters relating to the company and its business segments. He will report to CFO Nick Caruso. Albert, 38, has more than 12 years of tax and tax-related experience and most recently was vice president of taxes with Encompass Services Corp., where he was employed for the past five years. Albert also has worked for Tenneco Inc., Ernst & Young LLP and Chamberlain, Hrdlicka, White, Williams and Martin, a Houston-based law firm. Albert earned a bachelor’s degree in Business Administration – Accounting from the University of Texas at Austin, a doctorate of jurisprudence from South Texas College of Law and a master’s degree in Laws in Taxation from the University of Houston.

Parroting the responses of Dynegy Inc. and Mirant a day earlier, Aquila Inc. and Reliant Resources Inc. on Thursday advised their shareholders to beware of the unsolicited mini-tender offers of Main Street AC, which is seeking to buy 4.9% of all four companies (see Daily GPI, Sept. 5).

A group of California power generators — led by Reliant, Williams, Mirant and Dynegy — last week asked FERC to either extend the deadline for comments on whether to reduce the wholesale natural gas costs used in calculating power refunds to the state, or postpone the proceedings related to California’s request for $8.9 billion in refunds until the gas issue is settled.

A group of California power generators — led by Reliant, Williams, Mirant and Dynegy — has asked FERC to either extend the deadline for comments on whether to reduce the wholesale natural gas costs used in calculating power refunds to the state, or postpone the proceedings related to California’s request for $8.9 billion in refunds until the gas issue is settled.