Vectren Corp. reported its public offering of 5.5 million shares of common stock was priced at $21.27/share, for gross proceeds to Vectren of $116,985,000. The company said it granted the underwriters a 30-day option to purchase up to an additional 825,000 shares of common stock to cover over-allotments. Proceeds of the offering will be used to help complete the permanent funding for the acquisition of the natural gas distribution assets of Dayton Power & Light Co. and other recent investments.
CMS Energy Corp.'s independent power unit, CMS Generation Co., reported commercial operation has been achieved at Unit 4 of the $1.5 billion, 1,356 Mw Jorf Lasfar power plant in Morocco. The milestone marks completion of construction at the coal-fueled facility, the largest independent power plant in Africa and the Middle East. The 348 Mw Unit 4 began supplying commercial power Feb. 2 to Office Nationale de l'Ectricite (ONE), the Moroccan national utility.
TECO Energy Inc.'s TECO Power Services subsidiary said it will purchase American Electric Power Co.'s McAllen, Tex., 500 Mw Frontera power station for $265 million. AEP is being required by the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission to divest its ownership of this facility as part of its merger with Central & South West Corp., which was completed last summer. The transaction is expected to be immediately accretive to TECO Energy earnings, the company said.
A California Energy Commission siting committee has recommended licensing for the $600 million 1,056 Mw Mountainview Power Plant Project in Redlands. The natural gas-fired, combined cycle generating project, proposed by Thermo Ecotek, would be located at an existing San Bernardino power plant recently annexed by Redlands
Norway's Norsk Hydro AS said it will construct a 1.5 billion kroner Tyin water power plant in �dal in the western part of the country. The new plant's energy production will be 1.4 Tw-hr or 0.2 Tw-hr more than the old plant. Construction is expected to take 3 years. The existing power plant will be phased out when the new plant is ready in autumn 2004.
CMS Energy Corp.'s energy performance contracting unit, CMS Viron Energy Services, reported signing a $43 million fourth and fifth phase contract with University of Utah, Salt Lake City. CMS Viron has completed the first three phases of the contract, which included the construction of a chilled water plant built from the savings achieved from two retrofit contracts. Under the fourth phase, CMS Viron will retrofit 2.7 million sq ft of space with high efficiency lighting modifications, energy efficient motors, and a new energy management system.