Scale

Ridge Energy Storage (RES) is moving forward on a fairlylarge-scale power project that will incorporate the rarelyimplemented process of using compressed air storage to produceelectricity. Ridge has entered into an exclusive arrangement withTexas Brine Company LLC (TBC) to develop up to 10 of theseprojects, with potential capacity to produce up to 600 MW each, ata number of Texas Brine’s brine production sites along the GulfCoast.

Dynegy Inc. has started full-scale operations at the RockinghamPower Plant, a simple-cycle generating facility in RockinghamCounty, NC. The 800 MW plant, developed in just 12 months, is thethird generation facility Dynegy has put on line this summer.

Dynegy Inc. has started full-scale operations at the RockinghamPower Plant, a simple-cycle generating facility in RockinghamCounty, NC. The 800 MW plant, developed in just 12 months, is thethird generation facility Dynegy has put on line this summer.

Northeast citygates continued to scale new price heightsWednesday as the region braced for another onslaught of what isturning out to be the most severe winter storm of the currentseason by far. Transportation-constrained Transco Zone 6-NYC againtopped the price list with quotes that ran as high as $11, and acouple of sources confirmed that the point had already traded forFriday flow at $13.50. Other citygates in the region were allaveraging more than $5 Wednesday.

Modest gains were seen in the natural gas pit yesterday after alocal-led sell-off was stymied by scale-down trade buying. Asidefrom cash prices moving a couple pennies higher, the fundamentalpicture remained overwhelmingly bearish, prompting traders to blametechnical factors for Thursday’s strength. The February contracttraded up 2.8 cents to $2.196 and March bounced 3.6 cents to$2.237. Equally as impressive was the 12-month strip, which gained2.6 cents to $2.391

Fueled by forecasts calling for cooler weather next week,natural gas futures rumbled higher yesterday as traders cashed inon newly established short positions. After opening above keyresistance at $2.36, the January contract moved sideways for mostof the session before erupting higher at the closing bell. TheJanuary contract finished just a fraction of a penny off its dailyhigh, up 8.9 cents to $2.393.

Following a five-day, 30-cent price drop, the natural gasfutures market dug in its claws Friday as scale-down industrialbuyers found good value in winter gas prices. Gaining 6.2 cents tofinish at $2.608 the October contract was only the tip of theiceberg. Led by the December contract, which was up 7.7 cents to$2.974, the winter strip (Nov.-Mar.) posted an impressive 5.6-centgain.

Cautious selling was met with light, scale-down buying pressureat the New York Mercantile Exchange Friday. And when the dust hadcleared and all the orders counted, both bulls and bears couldglean something positive from the session. Bulls were quick topoint to the $2.225 settlement, a 0.7-cent advance for the day.Bears, on the other hand, touted Friday’s lower high and lower lowas an indication the downtrend was still intact. Estimated volumeof 77,538 confirmed the heavy activity in the pit.

The cash market started out this week looking remarkably similarto the way it did last week, but on a reduced scale. Because pricesweren’t digging out from nearly as deep a weekend hole as the oneof Dec. 5-7, Monday’s increases weren’t quite as spectacular asthose from the previous week but were still significantnonetheless.