Unprecedented

Over the strong protests of its large public and private-sector electric generating customers, Sempra Energy’s two California utilities later this year will merge their natural gas buying operations as an efficiency move if state regulators okay a currently proposed decision from one of their administrative law judges. Although the two utilities are in the process of merging their management functions throughout each organization, the gas-buying combination has been a proposal since the time of the merger that eventually would form Sempra was announced in the fall of 1996.

In a highly unusual, if not unprecedented, move, FERC announced Friday that it will reconsider its decision to allow Williams to reactivate and expand its Cove Point liquefied natural gas (LNG) terminal plant in Maryland, even before rehearing petitions are due at the Commission.

In a highly unusual, if not unprecedented, move, FERC announced Friday that it will reconsider its decision to allow Williams to reactivate and expand its Cove Point liquefied natural gas (LNG) terminal plant in Maryland, even before rehearing petitions are due at the Commission.

Although an “unwelcome” and “unprecedented” development, FERC’sdecision last week ordering 13 power generators and suppliers inCalifornia to pay potential refunds of $69 million on transactionsfor the month of January will have a “relatively benign” impact onthe companies’ finances, according to a Merrill Lynch report.

Salomon Smith Barney (SSB) analysts calculate that theunprecedented price surge this winter drove a significant amountmore demand out of the market than previously envisioned. With therecent decline in prices, however, some of that lost demand isreturning to the market.

Market access issues are becoming a major challenge fortransmission and distribution markets, which face unprecedentedgrowth and increased deliveries, and while it’s still unclear as towho will be willing to finance and construct the required newfacilities, a huge capital investment has to be made just to meetdemand, an industry analyst said last week.

Market access issues are becoming a major challenge fortransmission and distribution markets, which face unprecedentedgrowth and increased deliveries, and while it’s still unclear as towho will be willing to finance and construct the required newfacilities, a huge capital investment has to be made just to meetdemand, an industry analyst said yesterday.

In an unprecedented special session Monday, the five-memberCalifornia Public Utilities Commission provided added retailelectricity rate relief for San Diego consumers who are stillreeling from this summer’s rate shock.

Unprecedented growth of nearly 339% last year in the gas andsteam turbine market was fueled by the rise in combined cycleconfigurations, a manufacturing method that has dramaticallyincreased efficiency in electricity production and becomeincreasingly popular with power plant producers, according to a newresearch report by Frost & Sullivan.