CP&L Energy Inc. said Thursday it has completed the acquisition of Florida Progress Corp. in a cash and stock deal worth $5.3 billion and Monday will rename the combined company. The company will begin trading under a new ticker symbol Dec. 11. Until that date, the new company will trade under CP&L's current symbol, CPL.
Alliance Pipeline LP, Calgary, said Friday it is commencing commercial service to transport, on a firm basis, 1.325 bcf/day (37.5 million cu m) of natural gas. Chairman Norm Gish said the 2,300 mile pipeline is capable of transporting 10% of Alberta and British Columbia, Canada's, total gas production for export to eastern Canada or the US. The line was originally scheduled to begin operation Oct. 1.
Avista Corp. subsidiary Avista Advantage has added two capital firms, WS Investment Co., the investment arm of Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati PC, and Cascade Investment LLC, as participants in the company's private equity offering, the company reported. It said the investment closes the Series A investment round led by EnerTech Capital Partners earlier this month. Terms of the agreements were not released.
Exelon Corp. said its Exelon Nuclear's LaSalle County generating station Unit 2 is back on-line after completing a refueling outage of 20 days, 4 hours and 18 minutes. Operators took Unit 2 off-line on Nov. 10 for its 8th refueling outage. The Unit 2 reactor is expected to be at full power this weekend. The previous station refueling record was just over 30 days on Unit 1 last fall.
DPL Inc. reported it has signed the agreement to become a member of the Alliance Regional Transmission Organization (RTO). DPL previously announced its plans to join the Alliance RTO Oct.16 in a filing with the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission. In total, Alliance members own more than 50,000 miles of transmission lines serving 35 million customers.
LG&E Power Inc., a subsidiary of LG&E Energy Corp., reported it has entered into a put and call agreement with Dominion Virginia Power, a subsidiary of Dominion Resources Inc., to sell its equity interests in three 70 Mw coal-fired cogeneration power projects in Altavista, Hopewell, and Southampton, Va. Under the agreement, the plant owners and Dominion Virginia Power may exercise their respective put and call rights during early 2001. If exercised, the purchase price is a combination of cash and the assumption of the projects' contracts and debts. LG&E Power owns 50% of the projects, which began operations in 1992. The put and call agreement is subject to certain regulatory approvals. As a consequence of the settlement, LG&E will recognize a $15 million pretax gain for the quarter.
The staff of the Ohio Power Siting Board recommended the board not issue a certificate for PG&E Dispersed Generating Co. LLC, a unit of PG&E Corp., to expand its existing Napoleon electric generating station in Henry County or the company's existing Bowling Green electric generating station in Wood County. The staff report cited PG&E's failure to provide sufficient information regarding electric grid interconnection and noise conditions were reasons for the recommendation.
