Plants

Southern California Edison made good on its threat to go tocourt if FERC failed to respond immediately to its request tore-impose price controls on bulk power sales in the in theout-of-control California market.

Cinergy Capital & Trading, Inc. said it may build fourgas-fired generating units at an industrial park in Martinsville,VA, and add to the gas pipeline infrastructure there to support theplant and the gas needs of the surrounding area.

Cinergy Capital & Trading, Inc. said it may build fourgas-fired generating units at an industrial park in Martinsville,VA, and add to the gas pipeline infrastructure there to support theplant and the gas needs of the surrounding area.

Constellation Power Source announced it will build one ofCalifornia’s first major power plants in more than a decade. TheHigh Desert Power Project, a $350 million, 750 MW power plant willbe built at the Southern California Logistics Airport in SouthernCalifornia’s Victor Valley. “The High Desert Power Projectrepresents an important step in meeting California’s criticalenergy needs,” said Constellation Power Source President Charles W.Shivery. “Leading up to this summer there was a growing gap betweenelectric generation supply and consumer demand in California whereconsumption of electricity has increased more than 22% in the pasteight years, and in-state power generation has remained nearly flatat under 4%.” Groundbreaking is expected to begin early next year,and the plant is scheduled to begin commercial operation in timefor the high electric demand season in the summer of 2003. HighDesert is the fifth merchant power plant announced this year byConstellation.

Indicative of the banged up status of the state’s aging fleet ofpower plants, the California Independent System Operator (Cal-ISO)declared its first weekend Stage One Alert last Saturday despitethe fact that peak demand was only 36,000 MW.

PPL Corp. announced that its development subsidiary will bespending between $400 and $450 million to install five compact,natural gas-fired generation facilities in eastern Pennsylvaniatotaling about 900 MW of generating capacity. The five facilitiesin Lancaster and Montgomery Counties are expected to go on-line bythe summer of 2002.

Belatedly, the California Energy Commission (CEC) is getting inits two-cents-worth in the state’s remaining natural gas settlementtalks focused on Southern California Gas Co. which resumed Tuesdayin Los Angeles. A regulatory proceeding earlier in the monthbroadened the scope of the talks at the same time concludingsimilar negotiations centered on Pacific Gas and Electric Co.’snatural gas system in the northern half of the state.

The Maryland Public Service Commission approved Potomac ElectricPower Co.’s (Pepco) plan to sell its power plants and usher incustomer choice of suppliers beginning July 1.

Mitsubishi Motors Manufacturing of America (MMMA) announced itentered into a multi-year agreement with Duke Energy’sDukeSolutions Inc. last week to manage energy service forMitsubishi’s two-million-square-foot manufacturing plant in Normal,IL. Over the contract term, DukeSolutions will support up to $30million of energy expenditures for MMMA.