Starting

Projecting a need for additional resources starting in 2011, Xcel Energy this week told Minnesota utility regulators that the company plans to initiate an all-source bidding process in 2005 for up to 450 MW of generation to be in service between 2011 and 2013.

California will have to make multi-billion dollar cuts in its budget — starting now, the governor said after meeting with the state legislative leaders on a conference call Thursday.

With continued support from energy futures and touches of winter-like weather starting to show up in some areas, cash prices rose across the board Monday and skyrocketed in most cases. Rockies/San Juan gains of 20-30 cents or so were small only in comparison with upticks of around 40 cents or more in the rest of the market.

Ready once again to jump into the U.S. power markets after a less than triumphant start, Nymex Chairman Vincent Viola said Friday that the exchange plans to launch a revamped electricity futures contract for the PJM interconnection as soon as January. Viola, in Houston for a press briefing on the plan, told participants that once the PJM contracts are up and running, the long-range plan is to revive electricity contracts nationwide.

FERC voted Wednesday to continue the must-offer requirement and westwide power price cap for generators starting Oct. 1 at the $250/MWh level, with some price mitigation between $97.87 (the current cap) and the $250 level. The Commission also told the California Independent System Operator to speed up creation of a day-ahead and ancillary services markets to Jan. 1, 2003, and that FERC personnel would be installed in the Cal-ISO operations center.

FERC voted Wednesday to continue the must-offer requirement and westwide power price cap for generators starting Oct. 1 at the $250/MWh level, with some price mitigation between $97.87 (the current cap) and the $250 level. The Commission also told the California Independent System Operator to speed up creation of a day-ahead and ancillary services markets to Jan. 1, 2003, and that FERC personnel would be installed in the Cal-ISO operations center.

About 10 Tcf of gas stranded offshore Venezuela could be headed to the U.S. East Coast via liquefied natural gas (LNG) tanker starting in 2007, according to a new partnership formed by Venezuelan state-owned oil company Petroleos de Venezuela (PDVSA), Royal Dutch/Shell Group and Mitsubishi Corp. The companies signed an agreement to spend $2.5 billion on a new LNG project on the Paria peninsula. Construction is scheduled to begin in 2005 and be completed two years later.

Legislation in New York would ban directional drilling under Lake Erie and Lake Ontario starting in January 2003 to protect the environment along the shoreline, but apparently would not impact the proposed Millennium Pipeline project. A spokeswoman for Assemblyman Sam Hoyt, who sponsored the bill (A11506), said the legislation, however, probably would put a stop to National Fuel’s proposed 500 MMcf/d Northwinds Pipeline if the project sticks with its plan for directional drilling.

Starting the new year on a giving note, Purchase, NY-based The New Power Co. (TNPC) offered Georgia residents who are 65 years and older in the AGL distribution area a new discounted natural gas offer of $0.609 per therm. This special one-year rate, available through Feb. 28, 2002, is on average 10% less than the standard rate offered by the state’s current largest gas marketer.