Powerhouse

Columbia, SC-based SCANA Corp. nearly doubled its regulated gascustomer base in the fast-growing Carolinas yesterday with thepurchase of Public Service Company of North Carolina (PSNC) for$900 million, including the assumption of about $250 million inPSNC debt. The combination will serve 517,000 electric, 760,000 gascustomers in the Carolinas and Georgia and 350,000telecommunications customers throughout the Southeast. Total annualrevenues for the combined company will be about $2 billion andmarket capitalization will be about $6 billion.

Construction of a new 710 MW gas-fired cogeneration plant toreplace a 75-year old coal-fired powerhouse supplying Ford MotorCompany’s massive Rouge complex and Rouge Steel Co. in Dearborn,MI, is going into overdrive following a boiler explosion lastTuesday that killed one person, critically injured a dozen othersand destroyed the power plant.

Construction of a new 710 MW gas-fired cogeneration plant toreplace a 75-year old powerhouse supplying Ford Motor Company’smassive Rouge complex and Rouge Steel Co. in Dearborn, MI, is goinginto overdrive following the explosion of a boiler Tuesday thatkilled one person, critically injured a dozen others and shut downthe old plant.

The proposed merger of electric powerhouse American ElectricPower (AEP), which also owns the midstream gas assets formerly heldby Equitable Resources, and Central and Southwest Corp. (CSW) wasplaced on hold last week, as FERC set the case for an evidentiaryhearing, saying “sufficient concerns” had been raised aboutpotential market power in both the transmission and generationarenas.

Touchstone Energy is planning to launch a national brandingcampaign this weekend with television, radio and print ads in 20major American markets, primarily to keep as many of its 11 millionretail customers from getting cherry-picked by power marketers. Andit is considering adding natural gas, propane, telecommunicationsand security services to its future energy mix.