Republished

Houston Industries Power Generation (HIPG) agreed to buySouthern California Edison’s (SCE) Ormond Beach Generating Stationfor $43 million. Ormond Beach has two gas-fired units totaling1,500 MW, and the deal includes land adjacent to SCE’s Coolwaterplant in the Mojave Desert, which Houston Industries bought inNovember.

Tengasco, Inc. of Knoxville, TN, completed its $10 million,28-mile pipeline in Eastern Tennessee. The pipeline originates atthe company’s Swan Creek Natural Gas Field into Rogersville, TN.Hawkins County Utilities District has connected Swan Creek to itsdistribution network. Three small tie-ins and testing of facilitiesremain before Tengasco furnishes gas to East Tennessee bymid-April.

CMS Energy’s CMS Marketing, Services and Trading (CMS-MST) hasacquired 50% of North Carolina-based energy marketer Enline EnergySolutions.

The Clinton administration will announce today a “plan” or “listof principles” for restructuring the electricity industry. “It canbe introduced as legislation. It’s written in legislative language.This is what everyone’s been waiting for,” said Bill Wicker, aspokesman for the Department of Energy.

Three commodity futures exchanges are expected to launch six newelectricity futures and options contracts this year based ondelivery east of the Mississippi and it looks like two Nymexcontracts could be the first to market. The Commodity FuturesTrading Commission yesterday approved the Nymex contracts, whichare based on delivery through the Cinergy transmission system (inOhio) and through the Entergy transmission system (in Louisiana). Athird Nymex electricity contract, based on delivery through thePennsylvania-New Jersey-Maryland Interconnection transmissionsystem, was not submitted to the CFTC because of recent changes inPJM policies. The PJM contract is expected to be submitted at alater date when the most active trading locations in the PJM poolare identified.

Prosper Business Development Corp. of Columbus, OH, formed adivision to assist energy companies in dealing with marketingchallenges of deregulation. Prosper NRG Marketing offers a varietyof turnkey products designed to enhance marketing efforts to thecommercial and residential segments of the energy market. Theproducts can be used to sell energy without a direct sales force.

Cash prices were mostly higher Monday, but there was littleconsistency from market to market. Western points mostly rangedfrom flat to down a nickel, while Northeast citygates andAppalachian pipes jumped by a nickel or more as snowy conditionsstill lingered in some areas. One forecasting service said the fiveinches of snow dumped in the New York City area over the weekendwas 10 times what it had received all winter.

What if they had a customer choice pilot and nobody showed up?So far, about 18 marketers have expressed interest in ConsumersEnergy’s statewide Gas Customer Choice pilot in Michigan. However,only one has said it might solicit residential customers, accordingto Consumers, and at least one other, mc2, is balking at thepilot’s requirements. Consumers certainly doesn’t expect awash-out, but whether many customers actually get a choice isextremely doubtful. Beginning April 1, up to 100,000 Consumerscustomers are to be able to choose their supplier during the firstyear of the program. Customers and suppliers may enter the programat any time during the year. The pilot is to run three years,offering choice to 100,000 per year.

Coastal’s Colorado Interstate Gas (CIG) is holding an openseason for a new interstate pipeline between its existing westernterminus in Uintah County, UT, and an interconnection with thePaiute Pipeline Co. system near Elko, NV. The pipe could becompetition to a project announced in January by Williams’Northwest Pipeline and Paiute.