electric

Late last Friday after the stock markets had closed for the week, Pacific Gas and Electric Co. announced it had reached a $295 million settlement with plaintiffs related to toxic chromium exposure in the 1950s, 60s and 70s at three gas compressor stations spread across its 350-mile southern California gas transmission pipeline system from the Arizona border to Kettleman on the northwest side of the state’s central valley. Financial effects from the settlement — the second nine-figure deal involving chromium 6 — will be reflected in the utility parent company’s 2005 earnings report on Feb.17, the company said.

With natural gas prices expected to remain volatile and high, the rush to coal-fired electric generation is back. Everything from vertically integrated utilities to merchant operators are proposing new plants, as well as hyping the prospects for “clean coal” facilities, but some old-fashioned caution is recommended in a report released Tuesday by Standard & Poor’s Ratings Services (S&P), examining whether high yield or high grade financing will build these plants.

Moody’s Investors Service Monday placed the ratings for Dominion Resources, Inc. and its principal subsidiaries, Virginia Electric and Power Company (VEPCO) and Consolidated Natural Gas Company (CNG), on review for possible downgrade, citing weaker than expected recent financial performance and a higher degree of risk than most utilities due to its E&P operations, its non-regulated merchant generation business and a sizeable commodity risk management business.

Pacific Gas & Electric issued a systemwide Stage 2 high-inventory OFO for Saturday. Penalties of $1/Dth were set for exceeding a positive daily imbalance tolerance of 5%.

Sempra Energy and its California utility subsidiaries, Southern California Gas and San Diego Gas & Electric, agreed to settle with 12 plaintiffs in the “Continental Forge” class action lawsuit over the weekend. Terms of the deal were not disclosed. However, the multibillion dollar case involving allegations of natural gas price manipulation continues in California Superior Court in San Diego County. Jury selection started last week.

Aside from a series of Pacific rainstorms and wind that buffeted all of the West Coast over the New Year’s holiday, Pacific Gas and Electric Company said late last Friday its residential natural gas utility customers could expect a 43.5% rate hike this month compared to January 2005. PG&G’s utility attributed Midwest and Northeast storms last month for “significantly” increasing wholesale natural gas prices, meaning its average retail gas bill would be about $156/month in January.

Pacific Gas & Electric issued a systemwide Stage 2 high-inventory OFO for Thursday, setting penalties at $1/Dth for exceeding a positive daily imbalance tolerance of 5%.

Pacific Gas & Electric issued a systemwide Stage 3 high-inventory OFO for Saturday, setting penalties at $5/Dth for exceeding a 5% tolerance on positive daily imbalances.

As it prepared for a winter of discontent among retail natural gas customers, Pacific Gas and Electric Co. faced the year’s shortest day Wednesday acknowledging violations and accepting civil penalties handed out by the federal Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) for the giant combination utility’s mishandling of the record-keeping at its long-closed Humboldt Bay Nuclear Power Plant in the far northwest end of California.