Electric Power news briefs, August 16

Aug. 16, 2000
Kauai Island Utility Cooperative ... Citizens Communications ... Electric Lightwave Inc. ... Consolidated Edison Co. of New York Inc. ... PLTsolutions Inc. ... Ambient Corp. ... TransCanada PipeLines Ltd. ... Albrecht Inc. ... FirstEnergy Services Corp. ... Reliant Energy Inc. ... BMC Software Inc.


The Public Utilities Commission of Hawaii has denied Kauai Island Utility Cooperative's application to purchase the Kauai Electric division of Citizen Communications, formerly Citizens Utilities Co. Citizens said it is considering a variety of options, including the filing of a request for reconsideration of the decision. Citizens owns 83% of Electric Lightwave Inc. a facilities-based, integrated communications provider that offers services to telecommunications-intensive US businesses.

Consolidated Edison Co. of New York Inc. has entered into a memorandum of understanding with PLTsolutions Inc., a US subsidiary of Ambient Corp. to conduct phased testing over Con Edison's power lines of PLTsolution's proprietary technology. The technology is designed to facilitate high-speed data transfer using existing electric power lines in homes and businesses. It is also intended to allow electric utilities and power companies to add operational services such as load management and automatic meter reading.

DUBAI�The proposed Oman-India natural gas pipeline project has been "formally called off", with India heading towards putting its weight behind a similar link with Iran, Indian Minister of Petroleum and Natural Gas Ram Naik said in an interview with Dubai's Daily Gulf newspaper. A meeting of the joint committee on gas, formed by India and Iran, is scheduled in Tehran Aug. 18-20. According to Naik, the 6-year-old project remained on the drawing board, because a study failed to answer some necessary questions. These included the adequacy of reserves in Oman to sustain a steady supply, suitability of technology for laying the pipeline, maintenance of the deep-sea pipeline, and the willingness of Oman to fund the project. The proposed joint venture was estimated to cost about $2 billion.

TransCanada PipeLines Ltd. and TransCanada Power Services Ltd., the general partner of TransCanada Power LP, reported the 35 Mw Calstock power plant, Hearst, Ontario, has been completed. The plant is adjacent to TransCanada's Canadian mainline natural gas pipeline compressor station. Electricity generated by the wood waste and waste heat-powered project is sold under a 20-year contract to Ontario Electricity Financial Corp., a successor to Ontario Hydro.

Albrecht Inc. has signed a 3-year master energy services agreement with FirstEnergy Services Corp., a subsidiary of Akron, Ohio-based FirstEnergy Corp., to provide electricity, natural gas, and facility services management; including heating, ventilating and air conditioning services; energy conservation, and roofing maintenance to all Albrecht facilities. Albrecht owns and manages more than 4 million square feet of property throughout northeast Ohio, including 15 Acme grocery stores.

Reliant Energy Inc., Houston, has selected BMC Software Inc.'s ChangeDataMove product to assure the integrity of its outage inquiry system enabling employees to solve customer problems quickly and efficiently. In June 1997, Houston suffered a major storm and Reliant's system was overloaded by 1.5 million transactions, Reliant officials said. As a result, the company was not able to process data and information in a timely manner. The news system is expected to handle the load, Reliant said.