The Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) plans to take its first-ever private company partner to convert the Bellefonte Nuclear Plant. The two-unit plant, near Hollywood, AL, will likely be finished as a gas-fired facility. The decision not to complete the units as nuclear plants ended a 28-year policy of nuclear construction at TVA.

South Carolina Electric & Gas Co. began operating its $411-million, 385-Mw Orangeburg County plant January 15.

Pending the approval of state regulators, Puget Sound Power & Light Co. and Washington Energy Co. will become Puget Sound Energy. The new company will serve more than 1.3 million natural gas and electric customers.

Dover, DE, has struck a 10-year power-supply agreement with Duke Energy Corp. and Louis Dreyfus Electric Power, Inc. (Duke/Louis Dreyfus). The company will manage the city's generation facilities (175 Mw) and buy supplemental low-cost power from regional utilities. It also will participate in energy exchanges. The agreement provides the city with firm power at guaranteed prices through June 2006.

CMS Generation Co. has signed a two-year power-supply agreement at its Centrales Termicas Mendoza plant in Argentina. The power sale will cover 35 percent of the demand of the local distribution utility, Energia Mendoza Sociedad del Estado (EMSE), which provides electricity to about 400,000 people.

SCANA Corp. will invest $75 million in InterCel, Inc., a wireless services company. Through its subsidiary MPX Systems, Inc., SCANA holds about 17 percent of InterCel's stock. InterCel has agreed to buy a personal communications services license from GTE Mobilenet, Inc. for about $195 million. InterCel will privately place $150 million in convertible preferred stock, including $75 million to be bought by MPX.

Smallworld Systems, Inc. announced agreements with 12 North American utilities: Bellcore, Consolidated Natural Gas Co.'s (East Ohio Gas, Virginia Gas, CNG Transmission Co.'s, Consumers Gas, Louisville Gas & Electric, NorAm Energy Corp. (Arkla, Minnegasco, Entex), and Washington Gas. t

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