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J.P. Morgan & Co. will handle the auction of the non-nucleargeneration assets of Connecticut Light and Power Co. (CL&P), awholly owned subsidiary of Northeast Utilities, headquartered inBerlin, CT. The assets to be disposed of consist of 29 powerplants. CL&P’s power purchase agreements will be auctionedseparately in the near future.

Summer power price spikes may have hardly triggered a blip onthe gas spot market last year, but that may not be the case in thenear future. With the expected tremendous growth in gas-fired powergeneration, gas prices are on track to be more closely linked withthe price of electricity than the price of oil, according toCoastal Corp. CEO David A. Arledge.

Calpine Corp. of San Jose, CA, and North Dartmouth-MA basedEnergy Management Inc. formed a new power marketing joint venture,Calpine/EMI Marketing, LLC, which will sell power and transmissioncapacity in New England from new generation facilities in theregion.

Despite announcing one-year commodity sales agreements withOutback Steakhouse and the Hair Cuttery in Northern Virginia thisweek, Constellation Energy Source said retail commodity sales arelosing their allure. The company, a nonregulated subsidiary ofBaltimore Gas & Electric, has closed several small retailmarketing offices and eliminated six retail commodity salespositions to make room for more engineers and energy servicesexperts.

Like the “Row, row, row your boat” verse that repeats over andover, cash prices repeated their flat trading pattern Tuesday forthe umpteenth time in 1999. Several points made small gains of 1-3cents, likely deriving their modest firmness from a similar rise onthe futures screen.

Governor Christine Todd Whitman signed an energy deregulationbill Tuesday, clearing the way for statewide electric unbundling tooccur by Aug. 1, 1999 and statewide, residential gas unbundling byDec. 31. The bill was passed by the state’s legislature late lastmonth. The New Jersey Board of Public Utilities (BPU) is now incharge of formulating and implementing the deregulation program.

With weather forecasts producing bearish news at every turn andthe national storage reserves looming ever larger, Raymond James& Associates recently published a report projecting spotwellhead gas prices to drop below the $1.50/Mcf level before thebeginning of summer. The study gives the correlation between gasprices and storage levels, the onslaught of gas production, and theeffects of a third warm winter as reasons for its forecast. Thestudy also warns of a gas “price shock” in early 2000, when gasshortages run rampant and production is unable to keep up.

American Gas Association President David Parker yesterdaydismissed industry speculation that the gas LDC group is exploringthe prospect of combining with its electric counterpart, the EdisonElectric Institute.

After enumerating eight features any “win-win” upstream dealneeds to have, Exxon Exploration Co. President Jon L. Thompson toldattendees at the Cambridge Energy Research Associates executiveconference in Houston Tuesday that his company will be walking awayfrom “bad deals.