Federal

The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission last week approved themerger of BEC Energy and Commonwealth Energy System, setting thestage for the combined company to become one of the largest energyproviders in the state of Massachusetts.

A decision on the remanded Sea Robin Pipeline case anddiscussion of policy changes in the way the Federal EnergyRegulatory Commission regulates offshore pipelines both are on theagenda for Wednesday’s open meeting, but no one will be surprisedif they’re a no-show once again.

A decision on the remanded Sea Robin Pipeline case anddiscussion of policy changes in the way the Federal EnergyRegulatory Commission regulates offshore pipelines both are on theagenda for Wednesday’s open meeting, but no one will be surprisedif they’re a no-show once again.

The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission has been putting somemeat on the bones of its FERC First restructuring efforts,following up the announcement of a new director, with that of a newdeputy director of the merged Office of Markets, Tariffs and Rates(OMTR) and a new Office of Energy Projects (OEP).

The foreign invasion of the U.S. electric utility market got offto a good start last week when the Federal Energy RegulatoryCommission approved two separate transactions valued atapproximately $10-$11 billion.

In a key move last week, the Federal Energy RegulatoryCommission endorsed an innovative hourly firm transportation (HFT)service that will enable a gas pipeline to quickly respond to thepeaking needs of power generators. With this action, Reliant EnergyGas Transmission – which proposed the service – becomes the firstpipe to move away from the traditional daily and monthlytransportation markets.

The foreign invasion of the U.S. electric utility market got abig shot in the arm yesterday when the Federal Energy RegulatoryCommission approved two separate transactions valued at $10-$11billion.

The Department of Defense intends to award the federalgovernment’s largest energy-saving performance contract ever toPepco Energy Services and Viron Energy Services. Pepco EnergyServices is a subsidiary of Potomac Electric Power Co. Viron EnergyServices is a subsidiary of York International Corp. President BillClinton announced the $200 million contract, designed to implementenergy-savings measures for the Military District of Washington(MDW). The MDW is a major Army command encompassing five Armyposts: Fort George G. Meade in Maryland; Fort Myer, Fort Belvoirand Fort A.P. Hill in Virginia; and Fort Lesley J. McNair inWashington, DC. More than 2,100 buildings were examined for energyimprovements. The 18-year MDW contract will result in about $220million in overall cost savings.

Beverly Marshall, formerly a Washington representative forSouthern California Edison, has been named vice president andgeneral manager of federal government affairs for Duke Energy.