Enterprise

FERC may take action on the pending mega-merger between Exelon Corp. and Public Service Enterprise Group (PSEG) at what will be FERC Chairman Patrick Wood’s final open meeting at the Commission on June 30.

Despite the vociferous opposition to a FERC decision on the merger of Exelon Corp. and Public Service Enterprise Group (PSEG) without a hearing, analyst Christine Tezak of the Stanford Washington Research Group still predicts there’s a 75% chance that is exactly what will happen, “possibly by the end of June.”

Exelon Corp. last Tuesday said that if FERC approves the company’s pending merger with Public Service Enterprise Group (PSEG) without a hearing, the companies will divest additional capacity to address some of the concerns raised by outside parties.

Freeport LNG Development LP last Monday urged FERC to expeditiously approve its request to enlarge the diameter of the proposed sendout pipeline that would serve its liquefied natural gas (LNG) import terminal to be sited on Quintana Island in Brazoria County, TX.

In urging FERC to take a good, hard look at the proposed merger of Exelon Corp. and Public Service Enterprise Group (PSEG), the New Jersey Board of Public Utilities (NJBPU) is worried that “significant market power” in the PJM area resulting from the combination could undercut the viability of an annual basic generation service (BGS) auction held in New Jersey [EC05-43-000].

Top officials with Exelon Corp. and Public Service Enterprise Group (PSEG) last Wednesday expressed optimism that the pending mega-merger between the two companies will be able to navigate FERC’s regulatory process without a hearing.

Companies are expressing an interest in swapping capacity in response to plans by Exelon and Public Service Enterprise Group Inc. (PSEG) to divest a total of 2,900 MW worth of fossil fuel facilities outlined in a merger-related filing made by Exelon and PSEG earlier this month at FERC, a top Exelon official said on Thursday.

Southern Natural said it was notified that the Enterprise Processing Plant is being shut down. Southern also is shutting down its Toca Compressor Station and has declared a force majeure. Pressures declined to the point that Southern essentially has no gas flow through the Toca facility. Southern is requesting that all shippers/poolers verify that their supply is flowing and nominate their demand to match their anticipated supply. Southern is not accepting any nominations for interruptible services that rely on storage (ISS and Park withdrawals) and will not be accepting any makeup due shipper.

The Enterprise-operated Toca I Processing Plant work has been completed and the southeast Louisiana plant is back online, Sonat reported Sunday. As a result, the hydrocarbon dew point limitation and the Type 5 OFO implemented Aug. 1 in conjunction with the Toca outage (see Daily GPI, Aug. 3) were lifted immediately.