Positive

With basically no positive news on which to rear their horns, bulls were once again on the defensive Friday as a lower open forced them to either liquidate long positions or pony up additional reserves for margin calls. Naturally, some chose the former, and that selling pressure translated immediately to lower prices, as futures probed to fresh 16-month lows for the third straight session. September was the hardest hit of any of the months in the gas pit, tumbling 10.5 cents to close at $2.706.

Although Avista Corp. has revised its earnings projections for 2001 upward in the wake of positive second quarter earnings results, company executives said that the political and regulatory uncertainty that continues to swirl around western energy markets muddles its ability to forecast how its energy trading and marketing arm will perform over the next year or so.

Pacific Gas & Electric declared a systemwide Stage 3 high-inventory OFO for Saturday. The OFO had $5/Dth penalties for exceeding a very tight 1% tolerance for positive daily imbalances. Unlike the previous weekend, Southern California Gas did not have a corresponding Overnominations Day in place Saturday.

Pacific Gas & Electric issued a systemwide Stage 3 high-inventory OFO with $5/Dth penalties for positive imbalances exeeding 9% for Saturday.

Pacific Gas & Electric declared a systemwide Stage 3 high-inventory OFO for today. Positive imbalances exceeding a 4% tolerance are subject to penalties of $5/Dth.

Pacific Gas & Electric extended into Sunday a Stage 4 high-inventory OFO that had been implemented Saturday. Tolerance for positive imbalances was tightened to 5% Sunday but penalties were left unchanged at $25/Dth. No OFOs were in effect for Monday or today.

Pacific Gas & Electric did not extend a high-linepack OFO with zero tolerance for positive imbalances beyond Saturday.

The vibes were mostly positive in California last week with no blackouts, a new law creating a state power authority, initial work for the state’s record $13.4 billion municipal bond sale and a record $5.7 billion retail electricity rate increase being spread to the largest residential users and businesses of all sizes.

Although Illinois is showing positive signs of retail market growth, questions remain as to whether the wholesale market in Illinois is robust enough to support a competitive retail market, according to a recent report by the Illinois Commerce Commission (ICC) assessing retail and wholesale market competition in the state’s electric industry.