Entergy acquires Kgen gas-fired plants in Arkansas and Mississippi; TransCanada buys BP share of Alberta gas storage facility; PSE acquires Tenaska plant; AEP issues $850 million in debt; Duke units float $650 million in bonds; plus debt issues by NextEra, Southern Company, Entergy, and others totaling nearly $3.2 billion.
Entergy Mississippi to spin off its transmission business to ITC; Calpine acquires Bosque Power merchant plant in Texas; WPS acquires Fox Energy plant; E.On buys interest in Magic Valley wind farm; plus bond issues by Nstar, Western Mass. Electric, Texas Eastern Transmission, Alabama Power, and NSP totaling $1.55 billion.
NU names new president and COO at Connecticut Light and Power; Jim Stanley leaves Duke to become NIPSCO CEO; plus executive changes at FirstEnergy, ConEdison, Southwest Power Pool, Duke-Progress Energy, EEI, and others.
Southern Company announced changes in the company’s management team. Great Plains Energy and Kansas City Power & Light (KCP&L) appointed Scott Heidtbrink as executive v.p. and COO of KCP&L and greater Missouri operations. NV Energy announced two senior leadership appointments. Pacific Gas & Electric (PG&E) appointed Jesus Soto Jr. as senior v.p. of gas transmission, operations, engineering, and pipeline integrity. And others...
But transmission planning, as we know it, may never be the same.
The recent landmark ruling on transmission planning cost allocation, known as “Order 1000,” and issued by the U.S. Federal Energy Regulatory Commission in late July 2011, could well produce an unintended side effect — the formation of regional compacts among states to identify needs and plan for development of new power plant projects.
(September 2010) Capital spending and commodity prices are driving changes in financial performance. The 2010 Fortnightly 40 report shows growing success for companies with substantial unregulated assets. As the industry resumes its Big Build, regulatory relationships will determine the long-term strength of utility shareholder returns.
(November 2007) Public Service Enterprise Group elected Ralph Izzo president and COO of the company and a member of the board of directors. Ralph LaRossa is president and COO of PSEG’s utility business, Public Service Electric and Gas Co. WGL Holdings Inc., and its subsidiary, Washington Gas Light Co., named Douglas Staebler vice president of engineering and construction, and Lauren Foley named vice president of consumer services. ISO New England Inc. elected two new board members: Richard A. Abdoo and Paul F. Levy. And others.
Operations & Maintenance
The process of calculating meaningful benchmarks is fraught with pitfalls.
Regulatory reporting requirements for major U.S. utilities provide a wealth of data for benchmarking studies. Both the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) Form 1 for electric utilities and FERC Form 2 for gas utilities involve the reporting of more than 2,500 unique data points per utility per year, across diverse aspects of utility operations, maintenance, and finance.