Consolidated Edison Development, Inc., New York, a wholly owned subsidiary of Consolidated Edison Inc., has completed purchase of an 80%interest in the 236-Mw natural gas and oil-fired Lakewood cogeneration plant, Lakewood, NJ, from CMS Energy Corp, Dearborn, Mich. CED will use the generating assets to support the power marketing and trading activities of Con Edison Energy, a wholesale energy marketer.
Scottish Power became the latest power company to back down in the face of threatened industrial action and scrapped plans to axe 300 engineering jobs over the next 3 years. The Glasgow-based group is also set to back down on a further 150 redundancies among clerical staff under the same program to save �75 million in operating costs in its heavily regulated electricity distribution business. Unions hailed the move. The planned cuts in a workforce of 4,000 would have affected staff in southern Scotland, northwestern England, and northern Wales. But Scottish Power officials said the cost-saving program remains on track and would be achieved by union agreement to greater efficiency, productivity, and flexibility.
A key consultation document was issued Friday by the UK office of the regulator for the gas and electricity industry (OFGEM) on the balancing and settlement code (BSC) that has been developed as part of the new electricity trading arrangements (NETA). The BSC will be maintained by National Grid Co. under a new condition in its transmission license that sets out the rules for the balancing mechanism and settlement process under NETA. OFGEM Director General Callum McCarthy said the document is a significant step. The BSC consultation will include seminars, discussion, and the receipt of written comments on the document. Results will be included in a redrafted code due to be published July 31.
Dynegy Inc., Houston, has begun construction on the 500-Mw natural gas-fired Riverside Generating project in Lawrence County, Ky. Commercial operations are scheduled to begin during the summer of 2001. Dynegy will sell the power generated at the peaking plant in the wholesale electricity market throughout the East Central Area Reliability Council. Natural gas delivered through the Tennessee Gas Pipeline Co. will serve the plant, and a 345-kv interconnection with American Electric Power Co. will provide transmission access.
Niagara Mohawk Power Corp. and El Paso Merchant Energy Co. have entered into a 7-month agreement beginning Apr. 1 under which the El Paso Energy Inc. unit will manage gas supply and storage for Niagara Mohawk. Under the agreement, El Paso will manage existing term supply transportation and optimize underground storage to cut the unit cost of gas.
