Ultimate

Citing current uncertainty in the electric power market, Aquila Inc. and Cogentrix Energy Inc. on Friday jointly agreed to drop the planned acquisition of Cogentrix by Aquila. The companies said that currently “the transaction impractical and not in either company’s best interest.” The transaction between Aquila and the Charlotte, NC-based company was announced in April (see Power Market Today, May 1). Aquila said it did not consider the termination part of its “ongoing efforts” to sell $1 billion in non-strategic assets.

Supporting the current CEO of the state’s electric transmission grid operator, Cal-ISO, and the ultimate need to make it a regional, multi-state entity, the state operator’s former stakeholder board chair, Jan Smutny-Jones, was among the energy industry representatives subjected to public depositions by a California senate investigative committee last week in a process that will continue later this month with further hearings. Subsequent hearings are suppose to look at some of the grid operator’s market practices, particularly allegations that it is giving “preferential treatment” to the state power-buying agency, the Department of Water Resources (DWR).

There’s no telling what the ultimate fate of PG&E Corp.’s bold move to move major assets out of its state-regulated utility operations as part of Pacific Gas and Electric Co.’s Chapter 11 bankruptcy reorganization plan will be, but major merchant generator/marketers are sitting comfortably with assurances they will recover up to almost $1 billion in unpaid wholesale power bills, regardless of what the bankruptcy judge decides.

With the ultimate energy solution dependent on a historic public bond sale targeted for August, the state of California last week got a preview of how Wall Street might view state offerings with the completion of a $1 billion general obligation bond sale. An official close to the State Treasurer Phil Angelides said the state’s banker was generally pleased with the results and optimistic for the $12.4 billion electricity bond sale in August.

Customer choice and so-called direct access retail power deals between end-use customers and supplier/marketers may be an ultimate casualty of California’s year-old energy wars. State energy regulators indicated last week they are divided over the issue along political lines.

Customer choice and so-called direct access retail power deals between end-use customers and supplier/marketers may be an ultimate casualty of California’s year-old energy wars. State energy regulators indicated last week they are divided over the issue along political lines.

Williams has been selected in a “landmark transaction” toinstall the infrastructure, including gathering lines and onshoreprocessing, to service new deep water development in the Nansen andBoombang Fields in the East Breaks area of the Gulf of Mexico.

California, the trend-setter in electric restructuring, isexpected to take it to the next level with a “decision-making”investigation starting this fall on distributed generation and themonster issue lurking behind it — the sacrosanct localdistribution franchises.