Northern

Fearing excessive linepack over the weekend, Northern NaturalGas implemented a System Underrun Limitation in all market-areazones for the gas days of Saturday and Sunday. The SUL will endtoday.

Northern States Power Co. issued a request for proposals (RFP)for up to 1,200 MW of power generation capacity and associatedenergy for a period of 10 years, beginning sometime between May 1,2003, and May 1, 2005. NSP will use the additional resources tomeet increased retail customer demand. NSP is seeking peaking,intermediate and base-load resources. The RFP is open to allsources of power, including renewable resources. NSP will selectwinning proposals based on cost, environmental impact and deliveryguarantees. Before awarding the contract(s), NSP will submit theevaluation of the proposals to the Minnesota Public UtilitiesCommission (MPUC) for review. For a copy of the RFP or moreinformation, contact David L. Zuck at (612) 330-6452. He also maybe reached via fax, (612) 330-5868, or e-mail,david.l.zuck@nspco.com.

New Century Energies and Northern States Power said they havefiled, or are expected to file later this week, merger applicationswith state regulators in Colorado, Wyoming, Minnesota, Texas, NewMexico, Kansas and North Dakota and with FERC. Other filings withadditional state and federal regulators will follow. NCE and NSPshareholders approved the merger on June 28. The proposedcombination, to be called Xcel Energy, will serve three millionelectricity customers and 1.5 million natural gas customers in 12states.

An unplanned outage occurred Wednesday at Northern Border’sCompressor Station No. 4. No capacity cuts were necessary, aspokesman said, and the station was functioning normally againThursday.

Northern Natural Gas said it lifted a System Underrun Limitationthat had been posted for Tuesday and today.

Northern Natural Gas extended a System Underrun Limitation orderfor all market-area zones through Monday. The SUL was initiatedTuesday to guard against excessive linepack (see Daily GPI, June 30).

Northern Natural Gas had a System Underrun Limitation in effectTuesday for all market-area zones to guard against excessivelinepack.

Shareholders of New Century Energies and Northern States PowerCo. approved the merger of the two companies yesterday. The newcompany will be named Xcel Energy Inc. At separate specialshareholder meetings held today in Denver and Minneapolis, morethan 83% of the voting shares of both NCE and NSP voted in favor ofthe merger. “This transaction will be accretive immediately, willprovide a balanced platform for growth, and will provide NCE andNSP customers with continued low-cost, reliable energy,” said NCEPresident Wayne Brunetti, who will become CEO of Xcel Energy. NCEsaid 93% of its shareholders representing 78% of its overall sharesapproved the deal, and 83% of NSP’s shareholders representing 62%of its shares okayed the transaction. The merger, announced onMarch 25, still requires state and federal regulatory approval. Theapproval process is expected to be completed in nine to 15 months.Under terms of the merger agreement, holders of NCE stock willreceive 1.55 shares of stock in Xcel Energy for each of their NCEshares. Each share of NSP stock will become one share of XcelEnergy.

NRG Energy, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Northern States Power,said it has completed the acquisition of Arthur Kill Station andthe Astoria Gas Turbine Sites totaling 1,456 MW of generatingcapacity from Consolidated Edison Co. of New York The 842-MW ArthurKill Generating Station, located on Staten Island, includes twosteam generating units designed to burn gas and oil, as well as a”black start” gas turbine. The 614-MW Astoria Gas Turbine Sites,located in Queens, consist of 20 gas turbines, grouped into 11units. NRG holds 100% interest in the projects.