Week

PacifiCorp said last week it expects its third-quarter earningswill be 50% below securities analysts’ expectations of $0.41/shareand its annual earnings will be significantly below analysts’forecast of $1.27 per share.

FERC last week put off a final ruling on the troubled merger ofAllegheny Energy and DQE Inc., parent of Duquesne Light, until thepartners decide how they want to resolve some serious competitiveconcerns. The Commission gave them the option of divesting DQE’s570-MW Cheswick Generating Station or proceeding to hearing ontheir own mitigation measures, which include relinquishing controlof the Cheswick output on a short-term basis and joining theMidwest independent system operator (ISO).

FERC last week conditionally approved the formation of the12-member Midwest independent system operator (ISO), but somecommissioners expressed disappointment that moretransmission-owning utilities from the region hadn’t joined yet.

LG&E Energy said last week its exit from the speculativeenergy marketing business is nearly complete. The company, whichwas among the top 10 largest power marketers and top 20 largest gasmarketers last year, completed four groups of portfolio salestransactions that are designed to offset a $232 million secondquarter loss suffered when LG&E was forced to cover a powermarketing agreement when power prices spiked to $7,000/MWh in June.

FERC last week gave the green light for ANR Pipeline to moveahead with construction of its Wisconsin Loop Expansion Project,which would provide about 116 MMcf/d of additional capacity toLDCs, marketers and power generators in the state. This puts ANRout in front of competing projects that also intend to vie for themarket.

FERC last week conditionally approved the formation of the12-member Midwest independent system operator (ISO), but somecommissioners expressed disappointment that moretransmission-owning utilities from the region hadn’t joined yet.

Marketers participating in the soon-to-be-unbundled Georgiamarket scored some key victories in a decision last week by theGeorgia Public Service Commission which will provide them withcomplete customer information from Atlanta Gas Light in electronicformat, allow them a chance to prove they can do their own meteringand allow free trading of daily imbalances.

Chairman James Hoecker said this week FERC plans to hold onestaff workshop (possibly more) with the gas industry in mid-Octoberto flesh out the details involved in the auctioning of short-termcapacity. The workshop will occur prior to the deadline forindustry comments on the notice of proposed rulemaking (NOPR) thataddresses regulation of short-term capacity, specifically theauctioning of that capacity. The comments are due in earlyNovember.

The distributed power movement got a boost from American GasAssociation (AGA) Chairman David Biegler this week from remarksmade at the 17th Congress of the World Energy Council (WEC) inHouston. “Distributed power is attractive to consumers, especiallyin facilities like manufacturing plants, laundries and hospitalsthat need both electric power and thermal energy,” said Biegler,CEO of Texas Utilities. “It can cut costs, provide waste heat foron-site use and improve power quality and reliability.” Hepredicted distributed power could provide as much as 50 gigawattsof power by 2015, compared to less than 2 GW today.