Winding

Participants report there is definitely light at the end of thewinding tunnel that has encapsulated California’s troubledelectricity market, but the question Wednesday was whether it wasthe result of a temporary power surge or light from the opening ofbroader, longer term solutions that include fixing the market,persistent supply shortages, beleaguered generators andcash-starved utilities.

TranCanada continued its divestiture program yesterday byreaching an agreement with GDF International, a subsidiary of Gazde France, to sell its Netherlands assets for about C$501 million.TransCanada also expects to see almost C$51 million in proceedsfrom the assets’ activity during the first half of 2000.

The gas industry’s long and winding road from pipelineelectronic bulletin boards (EBBs) to the Internet is heading backto the Gas Industry Standards Board Executive Committee for furtherdebate. However, progress has been made as GISB has so far narrowedthe number of proposals for Internet transition from seven down totwo, with the GISB Executive Committee strongly in favor of one,known as Model 2 or CAMEL, the Consortium Advancing MutualElectronic Links. The Executive Committee (EC) previously voted outModel 2 and Model 1 to be sent to the board. Model 2 received 19votes from EC members, while Model 1 received only two votes. TheGISB board of directors decided rather than choose one or send bothproposals to the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) itwould send them back to the EC in the hope one or a combination ofthe two could be decided upon.