Edison Mission Energy, a global power producer and an Edison International Co. subsidiary, agreed on Thursday to acquire Boston-based Citizens Power from Peabody Group, St. Louis, for an undisclosed sum. Completion of the sale is set for this summer, pending regulatory approval.
Citizens Power is the eighth largest power marketer in the US, trading 92.3 million Mw-hr in 1999. Its businesses include risk-management services and third-party power contract restructuring transactions.
Peabody Chairman and CEO Irl F. Engelhardt said Peabody's relationship with Citizens Power has been very beneficial, allowing Peabody to establish a coal and emissions trading group, improve its risk management systems, and understand new customer needs in a deregulating market. As those markets evolved and Peabody became a private company, Engelhardt said, "It became clear that Citizens Power could more fully utilize its excellent power marketing and risk-management expertise in affiliation with a merchant electricity generator."
Edison Mission's acquisition of Citizens will give it the capabilities required "to maximize our merchant plant investment and to optimize our future development efforts," said Alan J. Fohrer, president and CEO of Edison Mission.
Fohrer said Edison Mission has developed a strong generation presence in several of the most attractive US regional power markets. "Our well-run, low-cost facilities, combined with the market knowledge, commercial skills and logistical expertise of Citizens Power, should give us an exceptional competitive position."
Peabody Group is the world's largest coal company, with operations in the US and Australia. Its coal products fuel more than 9% of all US electricity and 2.5% of worldwide electricity.