Maelstrom

In a maelstrom of bullish news, Sempra Energy Thursday not only reported sharply increased third quarter and nine-month earnings results, but also increased its overall profit projections for the year, predicting bigger growth in all three main business units and a reorganization effective next year that will split up its lagging energy services business.

In a maelstrom of bullish news, Sempra Energy Thursday not only reported sharply increased third quarter and nine-month earnings results, but also increased its overall profit projections for the year, predicting bigger growth in all three main business units and a reorganization effective next year that will split up its lagging energy services business.

Even in the current political maelstrom surrounding some of its past trading practices during California’s energy crisis of 2000-2001, the City of Los Angeles Department of Water and Power (LADWP), the nation’s largest municipal utility, is financially and operationally secure in mid-2002, looking to expand its natural gas buying and power generation portfolios, according to its General Manager David Wiggs.

As Enron Corp.’s woes pulled other energy companies into the maelstrom last week, the company saw its problems escalate, learning that among other things, due diligence issues from the bankruptcy may complicate its anticipated sale of $800 million in assets that were already on the books. Enron began shedding other assets as well and also began to work with its creditors on a plan that Chairman Kenneth Lay hopes will put the company back on its feet within a year.

Amidst the maelstrom that is California’s electricity marketthis summer, the nation’s largest municipal utility sits calm, cooland collected, making a small killing on the wholesale market andseemingly immune from power shortages for its 1.3 million customerswho make up the city of Los Angeles.

The maelstrom in Atlanta Gas Light’s deregulated gas poolcontinued last week as regulators scrambled to find a replacementsupplier of last resort when the utility concluded it was unable tohandle the role. After an urgent 24-hour RFP, the state’s PublicService Commission (GPSC) selected Shell Energy Services to performthe function through April 1.