Wisconsin Energy completed the acquisition of Integrys Energy - forming the WEC Energy Group. The new company will provide electricity and natural gas to 4.4 million customers across four states through its customer facing brands - We Energies, Wisconsin Public Service, Peoples Gas, North Shore Gas, Michigan Gas Utilities, and Minnesota Energy Resources.
Wisconsin Energy and Integrys Energy Group entered into a definitive agreement under which Wisconsin Energy will acquire Integrys in a transaction valued at $9.1 billion.
Manitoba Hydro signed two major power sales with Wisconsin Public Service (WPS), a subsidiary of Integrys Energy Group. The first sale, running from 2016-2021, is for 108 MW of firm power. The second sale - which will use electricity produced by the proposed new Conawapa Generating Station on the Nelson River - is for 308 MW of firm power for up to 10-years. The 308-MW sale is scheduled to start in 2027. A previously announced 100-MW sale to WPS is scheduled to run from 2021 to 2026, bridging the gap between these two new deals.
Abengoa and BrightSource Energy agreed to jointly develop, build, and operate what the companies say will be the world’s two largest solar power towers. GE began operating a prototype of what it calls the world’s most efficient high-output wind turbine. Hawaiian Electric Co. dedicated the new 5-MW Kalaeloa solar farm in West Oahu, Hawaii. And more...
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.
(December2012) KC Electric Association expects soon to finalize installing a Sensus FlexNet network and iCon A electric meters to serve about 4,000 residential and small commercial members across a 5,000-square-mile territory in rural Colorado. Itron and C3 Energy formed an alliance to integrate and jointly market an energy management solution to North American utilities. And others...
Exelon Generation named Ron DeGregorio president of Exelon Power. Most recently he was chief integration officer working on the Exelon-Constellation merger. Former NSTAR president, chairman and CEO Thomas J. May was elected president and CEO of Northeast Utilities (NU) following the completion of the merger of the two companies. He succeeds Charles W. Shivery, who retired from his position and assumed a new role as the non-executive chairman of the board of NU.
The consumer-centric smart grid and its challenge for regulators.
Federal and state regulators play a critical role in the evolution of the smart grid. Lawmakers face a host of questions, from deciding who owns consumer data and how it can be used, to defining a new range of regulated and unregulated utility services and applications. How much regulation will be needed to manage the transformation to a smart grid? And how much regulation will be too much?