Purchasing

LG&E Energy Corp. positioned itself to take advantage of theexpanding pipeline construction industry last week by purchasingCRC Holdings Corp., parent of the pipeline construction equipmentcompany CRC-Evans Pipeline International, for a total of $83.5million. The deal closed on Friday. No layoffs are expected.

California regulators have given the green light to continueindefinitely the three-year-old incentive gas buying program atSouthern California Gas Co., dispensing at year-end 1998 with anannual review of the program, which has even drawn praise from theusually critical Office of Ratepayer Advocates (ORA) at theCalifornia Public Utilities Commission. The program reportedly hassaved millions of dollars for SoCalGas’ smallest customers who relyon the utility to buy their supplies.

Washington Water Power is asking state regulators to approve anew natural gas purchasing plan which will turn the purchasefunction for its residential customers over to Avista Energy, itsunregulated affiliate.

CMS Energy Corp. added to its retail energy marketing businessMonday by purchasing the western Pennsylvania natural gas marketingassets of Enerval, L.L.C., an energy marketing firm with more than250 commercial and industrial customers in that region. Enerval isan indirect subsidiary of Conectiv, the holding company formed inMarch 1998 through the merger of Atlantic City Electric andDelmarva Power and Light. Terms of the purchase were not disclosed.

Denver-based KN Energy (KNE) made a big entrance into thegas-fired power generation business yesterday by purchasing 10% ofthe generation in the state of Colorado and becoming the largestindependent power producer in the state. It purchased Denver-basedThermo Co., an electrical engineering firm that specializes indistributed power. The deal is designed to prepare KNE for eventualelectric industry deregulation and competition in its home state.