Largest

Increases of about a dime or more were common in the cash marketMonday. The upticks tended to be larger in the West, approaching 20cents in the California market and on some Rockies pipes. There wassome fundamental validation of Western firmness as the region wasunseasonably cool, especially in the Pacific Northwest, wheretemperatures were colder than in Alberta, a Calgary source said.

The nation’s largest gas distributor, Southern California Gas,last week signaled a possible future change in the way itscustomers access intrastate transmission during oral arguments atthe CPUC on future changes in California’s gas industry. Inaddition, for the first time, a number of the 19 major participantsin the state’s gas restructuring proceeding suggested a settlementprocess might be adopted to resolve some controversial issues.

The nation’s largest gas distributor, Southern California Gas,earlier this week signaled a possible future change in the way itscustomers access intrastate transmission during oral arguments atthe CPUC on future changes in California’s gas industry. Inaddition, for the first time, a number of the 19 major participantsin the state’s gas restructuring proceeding suggested a settlementprocess might be adopted to resolve some controversial issues.

Florida-based FPL Energy Inc. said it will build, own andoperate a 1,000 MW, gas-fired power plant in Paris, TX, that willbe one of the largest independent generation projects in the state.Electricity generated at the site, about 100 miles northeast ofDallas, will be sold primarily in the Texas wholesale market. Threefirms, Texas Utilities Electric Co., Texas-New Mexico Power, andConstellation Power Source, have contracts to buy 700 MW of theplant’s output for various periods. Construction of thecombined-cycle plant is to begin immediately. Commercial operationis scheduled for mid-2000. The maximum daily quantity of gas thatwould consumed by the plant is 170,000 Dth/d.

Calpine Corp. has raised $265 million to complete constructionof a 510 MW expansion of its Pasadena, TX, power plant. Calpine,based in San Jose, CA, and the largest independent power producerin Texas, broke ground on the Pasadena plant expansion in November.The company expects to begin electricity production in June 2000 tohelp meet peak summer demand. The Pasadena plant currentlygenerates up to 240 MW of capacity. With the expansion, it willgenerate enough electricity to power 750,000 households.

FERC last week upheld an earlier order that paved the way forGeorgia’s largest utility to implement retail unbundling behind itscitygate in late 1998.

Illinova Energy Partners, one of the top-30 largest powermarketing operations in the nation, grabbed a foothold in theMichigan retail gas and power market with the purchase of EMC GasTransmission Co. Terms of the merger were not disclosed.

Joseph P. Kearney, 52, a leading figure in the energy servicesindustry responsible for building the nation’s largest independentelectric generation producer, died of an apparent heart attackwhile in Washington, D.C., Oct. 3 to attend a charity dinner forthe Lombardi Cancer Research Foundation.

Atlanta-based Southern Co. has joined a collaborative effort of20 companies to create the largest survey of business energy use.Southern, the Regional Economic Research (RER), Opinion DynamicsCorp. and the Gas Research Institute plan to survey more than10,000 businesses across the U.S. to obtain detailed information onenergy usage as well as attitudes and behavior of energy buyers.The database and analysis system, called the National BusinessEnergy DataMart, will be packaged with software that providesdetailed analysis down to the individual customer level. Resultsare expected to be available next February.