Voluntary

Exelon Corp.’s Pennsylvania gas and electric utility, PECO, has requested permission from the Pennsylvania Public Utility Commission (PUC) to begin phase one of a voluntary residential real-time pricing program (RRTP) that would allow up to 2,000 customers to view real-time energy prices.

Exelon Corp.’s Pennsylvania gas and electric utility, PECO, has requested permission from the Pennsylvania Public Utility Commission (PUC) to begin phase one of a voluntary residential real-time pricing program (RRTP) that would allow up to 2,000 customers to view real-time energy prices.

With $2 billion in debtor-in-possession (DIP) financing from two major banks, San Jose, CA-based Calpine Corp. as widely expected filed for voluntary Chapter 11 bankruptcy Tuesday in the same federal court in lower Manhattan in which Enron Corp. four years earlier made a similar filing.

Rather than take mandatory action, Texas regulators on Wednesday accepted voluntary proposals by a number of state utilities pledging not to include post-Hurricane Katrina natural gas price spikes in their electric rates.

President Bush last Wednesday said that Congress “needs to make sure that reliability on the electricity grid is mandatory, not voluntary, when it comes to our power companies” and also said that federal authorities should have the power to site new transmission lines.

Voluntary price reporting reforms undertaken by the energy companies and industry publishers in recent months have renewed confidence in the system, a member of the Commodity Future Trading Commission (CFTC) said in Houston Thursday. However, Commissioner Sharon Brown-Hruska warned that Congress still could pass legislation requiring government regulation of price reporting.

Voluntary price reporting reforms undertaken by the energy companies and industry publishers in recent months have renewed confidence in the system, a member of the Commodity Future Trading Commission (CFTC) said in Houston Thursday. However, Commissioner Sharon Brown-Hruska warned that Congress still could pass legislation requiring government regulation of price reporting.

Dallas-based independent Coho Energy Inc. and two of its subsidiaries, Coho Resources Inc. and Coho Oil & Gas Inc., have filed for voluntary bankruptcy protection under Chapter 11. Inadequate liquidity and capital resources and extreme indebtedness forced the company and its subsidiaries to make the filing at the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Northern District of Texas, Dallas Division. The filing will permit the company to continue business operations while it develops a plan to reorganize its financial affairs.

In a move to cut costs, Cinergy Corp. is offering voluntary early retirement to 280 employees, or about 3% of its workforce of about 8,770 employees. The early retirement offer is being made to certain non-union employees who will be 54 or older on June 1 with five years of service.