Daily GPI

The Michigan Public Service Commission has approved orders forDearborn, MI-based CMS Energy Corp. that authorize securitizationof $469 million in stranded electric utility costs, expand the gascustomer choice program and authorize accounting changes tomitigate future increases in the cost of natural gas.

The vice chairman and COO of Enron Corp.’s international divisionhas resigned, two months after the chair and CEO of the division wasapparently forced out. Joseph W. Sutton will leave Enron Nov. 1 topursue other opportunities, said the company. His boss, Rebecca Mark,resigned in August (see Daily GPI, Aug. 28).

In an effort to compete with newcomer Vector Pipeline, Coastal’sANR Pipeline, Great Lakes Gas Transmission and TransCanadaPipeLines have joined forces to provide a hub-to-hub transportationservice between Chicago, IL, and Dawn, ON.

The New York State Public Service Commission has acted to eitherfreeze or decrease the distribution portion of charges to naturalgas customers of Niagara Mohawk Power through Aug. 31, 2003 as partof a multi-year rate and restructuring plan.

The state-chartered, nonprofit California wholesale spot powermarket (Cal-PX) concluded this week that the state’s market isflawed but has not been gamed. The power exchange intends to makeits results public Nov. 1 in a filing to the Federal EnergyRegulatory Commission, a Cal-PX spokesperson said Tuesday.

Although none of the major merchant generators in Californiawill talk about pulling back from the nation’s largest electricitymarket, they are not happy with some of the proposals that haverecently landed in the federal regulators’ lap advocating pricecaps and cost-based ratemaking, at least for interim periods.Several generators noted this week they are watching the situationclosely and intend to be heard at the federal level as well asamong the California energy policymakers.

Before the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission starts thinkingabout the next generation of natural gas transportation rules, itshould pay attention to how its latest Order 637 rules areenforced, Indicated Producers said in comments submitted to theCommission this week.

Strong interest amounting to essentially double the proposedcapacity from a recently completed open season has units ofPG&E Corp. and Sempra Energy pushing for a FERC filing by theend of this month for their joint venture natural gas pipelinelateral from the Arizona-California border through northern Baja inMexico, PG&E’s CEO told financial analysts Tuesday.

San Jose, CA-based Calpine Corp. announced Monday it has boughtthe rights to build, own and operate a $510 million, 850 MW naturalgas-fired electric generating plant along the Ohio River inHamilton Township, Lawrence County, OH. The plant, called theLawrence Energy Center, is targeted for starting operations in2004.