Incentives

“Near-term electric generating capacity adequacy is expected tobe satisfactory in North America,” said Michehl Gent, president ofthe North American Electric Reliability Council (NERC) inannouncing the release of NERC’s Reliability Assessment 2000-2009,a 77-page study of future growth in supply and demand as well asthe adequacy of the nation’s transmission infrastructure.

CMS Energy’s Chairman William T. McCormick Jr. cited “asignificant lack of adequate transmission capacity,” and noincentives to build more, as threats to the reliability of thenation’s power delivery system in a deregulated environment.

CMS Energy’s Chairman William T. McCormick Jr. cited “asignificant lack of adequate transmission capacity,” and noincentives to build more, as threats to the reliability of thenation’s power delivery system in a deregulated environment.

With incentives to ink a national contract later in the year,Sempra Energy Solutions has announced a “multi-million-dollar,one-year” energy services contract for the California operations ofPETCO Animal Supplies Inc., one of the leading national pet foodand supplies retailers with about $750 million in annual revenues(1997). Both Sempra and PETCO are headquartered in San Diego. Nationally, PETCO’s annual electricity bill alone exceeds $10million, according to Ken Moss, energy manager for the pet supplychain, which is rapidly expanding with new, larger(15,000-square-foot) retail outlets that now cover 36 states, withenergy coming from more than 100 different gas and electricdistribution utilities. Natural gas nationally accounts for about10% of the chain’s annual energy load. Water is a much smallerportion, Moss said.