Utility News

MSNBC.com:

California’s biggest utility, Pacific Gas & Electric Co., is considering a plan to charge fleets of battery-powered cars overnight with wind energy and let consumers sell back some of the stored electricity during the day.

In addition to reducing oil consumption and greenhouse gas emissions from standard cars, the plan could help stoke production of plug-in hybrid electric vehicles and give power managers more energy capacity on the grid for hot summer afternoons, speakers said at a “clean technology” investment conference in San Francisco this week.

No Comments »

 WJZ via Topix:

High winds are causing power outages for thousands of utility customers in central Maryland.

Pepco is reporting more than 1,700 customers without service in Prince George’s and Montgomery counties.

Baltimore Gas and Electric has more than 2,400 customers without power.

No Comments »

The Detroit Free Press:

Semco Energy Inc. is being sold to a Texas-based utility in a deal valued at $867 million in cash, stock and assumed debt.

The Port Huron-based utility, with 400,000 natural gas customers in Michigan and Alaska, said it agreed to sell all of its outstanding common stock to Cap Rock Holding Corp. for $8.15 a share in cash. In addition, Semco, Michigan’s third-largest utility, agreed to sell its 5% Series B preferred stock for $213.07 a share.

Cap Rock Holding, the parent company of Cap Rock Energy Corp., transmits and distributes power to residential and commercial customers in 28 Texas counties.

No Comments »

NorthJersey.com:

North Jersey residents face a 28 percent surge in their water bills if United Water New Jersey, the region’s largest water company, is granted a rate hike by regulators. The company is seeking the rate increase, its first request in 12 years, to help offset higher energy expenses and the cost of nearly $250 million in capital improvements.

United Water filed an application with the state Board of Public Utilities on Friday to raise rates and lift annual revenue by $36 million. If approved, quarterly water bills for a typical residential customer would increase $23.73, to $108.48. The yearly hike would be $94.92.

No Comments »

Foodconsumer.org:

Plans to add fluoride to Southern Californians’ tap water this summer are raising concerns that parents may not know of the potential risks of using fluoridated water to mix infant formula.

The Metropolitan Water District (MWD), which supplies 18 million people in six counties throughout the region, in July will begin adding fluoride to the water it delivers to 26 local water districts, some of which already fluoridate. But since MWD made the decision to fluoridate, the American Dental Association (ADA) the nation’s leading authority on dental health has for the first time acknowledged the dangers of fluoridation to children and issued a warning to the public.

No Comments »

The New York Times:

A group led by the private equity giants Kohlberg Kravis Roberts & Company and the Texas Pacific Group is near a deal to acquire the TXU Corporation, a Texas utility, for about $45 billion, according to people involved in the talks.

The amount of private money that is being offered is a huge financial endorsement of the company’s energy strategy. TXU has irritated environmental advocates by proposing to build 11 coal-fired power plants in Texas. Despite calls for regulating greenhouse gases, TXU has been the most aggressive in the power industry in pushing coal as the answer to growing electricity demands. Nationwide, power companies are planning to build about 150 coal plants over the next several years.

No Comments »

The Seattle Times:

During the past two years, FERC has received about 50 applications for tidal-power projects, most of those filed last summer.

As a result of the high level of interest, FERC slowed the permit process last fall.

Regulators say they will need to scrutinize progress reports every six months to help establish a permanent rule for tidal projects.

No Comments »

SNL Interactive:

Noting that regulators must continuously react to changes in the nation’s energy markets, FERC Chairman Joseph Kelliher said Feb. 22 that the commission will likely make some ‘discrete’ changes to federal policy following the upcoming review No Comments »

The Pittsburgh Tribune-Review:

Duquesne Light Co. would provide a discount on electricity service to new or expanding companies under terms of a settlement agreement tied to its parent company’s acquisition by an investment group.

The markdown — designed for large businesses that are boosting their power needs and payrolls — was among dozens of points that the Downtown-based company worked out this month with business and consumer groups and others who questioned Duquesne Light Holdings’ $3 billion deal with the Macquarie Consortium, six investment funds led by Australia’s Macquarie Group.

The settlement was filed last week with a state Public Utility Commission administrative law judge, who can recommend its approval by the five-member commission, reject it or change it. Duquesne Light Holdings, the parent of Duquesne Light, needs the PUC’s approval in order to complete its ownership change. Duquesne Light said Thursday the PUC could make its decision in the next few months.

No Comments »

The Charleston Daily Mail:

To combat copper and metal thefts that can prove dangerous and even deadly, the House of Delegates unanimously passed legislation to hold scrap dealers and other buyers more accountable.

The measure echoes similar efforts that lawmakers in such states as Illinois, Hawaii, Texas and Washington are considering this year. These and other states, including West Virginia, have suffered brazen thefts of copper and other metals everywhere from telephone and power lines to public monuments, cemetery mausoleums and even gutters and downspouts on homes.

No Comments »