Ordered

Federal investigators last week ordered Reliant Resources Inc. and CenterPoint Energy (formerly Reliant Energy Inc.) to cease violations of the anti-fraud and reporting/record-keeping requirements of federal securities laws as part of a settlement entered into between the Securities and Exchange Commission and the companies. No wrongdoing was admitted by the energy companies. No penalties were involved.

Federal investigators on Monday ordered Reliant Resources Inc. and CenterPoint Energy (formerly Reliant Energy Inc.) to cease violations of the anti-fraud and reporting/recordkeeping requirements of federal securities laws as part of a settlement entered into between the Securities and Exchange Commission and the companies. No penalties were involved.

FERC on Friday ordered Entergy to provide additional, detailed information about the company’s request for proposals (RFP) process related to several pending power purchase agreements (PPA). Entergy has filed eight long-term PPAs between Entergy affiliates at FERC.

The Department of Transportation ordered Northwest Friday to not exceed 80% of its Maximum Allowable Operating Pressure on the 26-inch line between Sumas and Washougal, WA. The pressure reduction is the DOT’s Office of Pipeline Safety response to a line failure that occurred Thursday afternoon between the Washington cities of Auburn and Sumner (see Daily GPI, May 5), and will continue until Northwest fulfills certain conditions. The pipeline said it had repaired the broken line and restored it to service Sunday, but began implementing the order and completed the pressure cut by Friday night, switching delivery feeds to the neighboring 30-inch line as necessary to maintain required delivery pressures. Northwest estimated it will be limited to a maximum of about 800,000 Dth/d in receipts at Sumas/SIPI until further notice and will cut alternate gas there exceeding 800,000 Dth/d, and primary gas if necessary. “Based upon customer activity over the weekend, we do not expect customers having primary firm capacity through Sumas/SIPI to be affected,” it said. Due to warmer Pacific Northwest weather and lower customer loads, no service cuts had been made as of late Monday afternoon, a spokeswoman said.

FERC last week ordered settlement talks in response to complaints filed by the city of Burbank, CA, and Kroger Co., a national grocery chain, against power suppliers seeking to modify forward bilateral contracts for power supplies that were entered into during the California energy crisis of 2000-2001.

FERC Administrative Law Judge (ALJ) H. Peter Young has ordered several Enron-affiliated wind farm projects and Southern California Edison Co. to file a status report by the end of next week on their efforts to complete a settlement that would resolve assertions made by Edison that the projects failed to comply with the Commission’s regulations for qualifying facility (QF) status.

An independent arbitration panel has ordered Duke Energy to enter into discussions with ExxonMobil Corp. to buy out the major producer’s 40% ownership stake in Duke Energy Trading and Marketing (DETM), an ExxonMobil spokesman said.

An independent arbitration panel has ordered Duke Energy to enter into discussions with ExxonMobil Corp. to buy out the major producer’s 40% ownership stake in Duke Energy Trading and Marketing (DETM), an ExxonMobil spokesman said.

The Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) ordered Dynegy Corp. subsidiary Dynegy Marketing and Trade and affiliate West Coast Power LLC last Thursday to pay a fine of $5 million to resolve charges they colluded to manipulate natural gas prices for more than two years by submitting bogus trading information to energy newsletters that publish gas price indices.