Portland

Spanish-based powerhouse Iberdrola SA agreed last week to acquire Portland, ME-based utility Energy East for an estimated $4.5 billion. The New England utility serves 1.8 million electricity customers and 900,000 natural gas customers along the East Coast in Maine, New Hampshire, Massachusetts, Connecticut and New York.

Shares of Glasgow-based Scottish Power PLC, parent company of Portland, OR-based wind power, marketing and storage company PPM Energy, jumped to a new 52-week high on the New York Stock Exchange last Wednesday after the company said that it received a potential buyout offer. On Friday Spanish power company Iberdrola confirmed that it is looking at potential deals with Scottish Power and “other alternatives.”

Shares of Glasgow-based Scottish Power PLC, parent company of Portland, OR-based windpower, marketing and storage company PPM Energy, soared Wednesday about 13% on the New York Stock Exchange after the company said that it received a potential buyout offer.

Portland Natural Gas Transmission (PNGTS) told FERC last week that Maritimes & Northeast Pipeline (M&NP) plans to overbuild its expansion project in order to shift costs that would be more properly assessed to M&NP affiliate Algonquin Gas Transmission, which will receive deliveries from the expansion. M&NP filed an application with FERC for the 418,000 Dth/d expansion in May.

Portland Natural Gas Transmission (PNGTS) found little that it likes in the proposed expansion of the Maritimes & Northeast Pipeline (M&NP) system, particularly the capacity that will be added to a 101-mile pipeline from Westbook, ME, to Dracut, MA, that the two companies jointly own. PNGTS said M&NP intends to overbuild the expansion of the joint facilities to shift costs that would be more properly assessed to M&NP affiliate Algonquin Gas Transmission, which will receive deliveries from the expansion project (see Daily GPI, May 17).

As the once halcyon Enron era draws to a conclusion in a Houston federal court room, 2,000 miles to the northwest at the Oregon headquarters of Portland General Electric (PGE) utility employees are rubbing their eyes and wondering if it was all real — those eight years as a subsidiary of Enron Corp.

Contrary to rumors earlier in the year that it was looking for potential buyers for the rest of its U.S.-based assets, ScottishPower’s CEO Wednesday lauded Portland, OR-based PPM Energy for its “excellent” financial results. He also announced new expansions of its wind power and natural gas storage projects in the United States.

Tennessee said it is experiencing hydrocarbon dew point (HDP) temperatures in excess of its 20-degree limit upstream of Station 87 (Portland, TN) due to high levels of hydrocarbons in deliveries into the 500 Line and the limited ability of the Yscloskey Processing Plant to sufficiently process that gas. Targa Midstream, operator of the Yscloskey facility, has informed Tennessee that the plant should be back to full operation by mid to late May. As alternatives to imposing further corrective actions, Tennessee said it is exploring various short-term operational options that may allow continued flows in the affected area in a safe and reliable manner. However, Tennessee asked shippers and producers to consider what steps they may take voluntarily to conform deliveries into the 500 Line, including but not limited to seeking additional processing alternatives such as deliveries to the Toca and/or Discovery processing plants. “Tennessee strongly encourages customers to make these processing arrangements to ensure deliveries into the pipeline system will conform to Tennessee’s posted HDP limit,” the pipeline said. If HDP temperatures are not sufficiently lowered, Tennessee said it will initiate further corrective action to protect operational integrity.

FERC was careful Thursday not to wade too deeply into the running dispute between Maritimes & Northeast Pipeline LLC and Portland Natural Gas Transmission Co. (PNGTS). However, the agency did grant Maritimes’ request for a declaratory order, which found that an engineering design submitted by Maritimes of a planned expansion of the pipelines’ joint facilities was appropriate.