[BETA] Fortnightly

New Opportunities:

Xcel Energy named Jacob P. Mercer assistant treasurer for the utility and its operating subsidiaries. Previously in his career in fixed-income research at Piper Jaffray, Mercer covered 28 publicly traded companies in the utility sector and developed extensive professional relationships with senior management teams throughout the utility industry.

Portland General Electric appointed Bill Valach director of investor relations. Valach has been with PGE for 14 years and has served in both the areas of financial analysis and corporate finance.

Federal Energy Regulatory Commission Chairman Joseph T. Kelliher appointed John S. Moot as the commission's general counsel. Moot has practiced at the law firm Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom LLP since 1992.

PJM Interconnection has realigned responsibilities among five executives. Thomas L. Welch , the former chairman of the Maine Public Utilities Commission, has been appointed vice president-external affairs. All services involving reliability will be consolidated in one division, led by Michael J. Kormos , senior vice president-reliability services. Karl V. Pfirrmann was appointed senior vice president in charge of the development of PJM's second control center and upgrades to its existing control center. Toby Mannheimer was promoted to the position of senior vice president-corporate services. Responsibility for PJM's non-regulated, for-profit subsidiaries, PJM Tech and PJM Environmental Information Services, will be consolidated under Andrew L. Ott , vice president-market services.

TXU Corp. named James A. Burke chairman and CEO of TXU Energy, the company's retail business, and Michael T. McCall chairman and CEO of TXU Wholesale. Burke formerly was senior vice president of consumer markets. Over the past year, McCall has served as senior vice president of environmental, fuels, and safety.

Itron Inc. said George Simons will co-lead the renewable energy consulting business within Itron's consulting and analysis group. Simons comes to Itron from the California Energy Commission (CEC), where he spent 23 years, and most recently directed and managed the renewables program element of the CEC's Public Interest Energy Research program.

Cinergy Corp. named James L. Turner president, responsible for all regulated operations, as well as the company's corporate development and strategic planning activities. Turner is responsible for coordinating all of Cinergy's merger integration activities. The company also announced that Lynn J. Good would become executive vice president and CFO. Turner began his career at Cinergy in 1995 following 11 years in the practice of law. Good joined Cinergy in 2003 after a career with Arthur Andersen and Deloitte & Touche.

Paul M. Anderson , chairman of the board and CEO of Duke Energy, and James E. Rogers, chairman, president and CEO of Cinergy, announced their selection of David L. Hauser , currently group vice president and CFO of Duke Energy, to be the CFO of Duke Energy when the companies complete their merger in 2006. The selection is subject to the approval of the board of directors of the new company once the merger is completed. Hauser is a 30-year employee of Duke Energy.

Resigned:

Southern California Edison announced that Robert G. Foster , 58, would leave his position as president of SCE on Sept. 30, 2005, and