Business & Money
Sticking to the Knitting:
A review of three years of post-Enron stock performance by electric utilities.
Immediately following the Enron collapse, investors dumped the stock of any electric power company that appeared to be pursuing non-traditional growth strategies. Any company that emphasized unregulated businesses-investments in overseas assets, merchant power plant development, and energy marketing and trading-was suspect.
The states are getting into the act on greenhouse emissions, and the power industry is getting more proactive. What policy measures are appropriate?
Diversified companies lead (and the globals lag) over the past five years.
Business & Money
Winners and Losers:
Diversified companies lead (and the globals lag) over the past five years.
The unbundling of services and companies in the electricity and natural gas industries have created unprecedented opportunities to reinvent the traditional integrated utility model, with a broader array of attendant risks and rewards. But this past year was clearly one of retrenchment and strategic soul searching, allowing an opportunity to re-examine the sector for winning business formulas.
People
New Positions:
William O. Ball moved to the role of senior vice president of transmission planning and operations for Southern Co. He had been Southern's vice president of transmission planning, policy, and support services since March of 2002.
The Southwest Power Pool (SPP) board of directors chose Nicholas A. Brown as the organization's president and CEO. Brown has been with SPP for 18 years, most recently as senior vice president and corporate secretary.
California Gov. Gray Davis named Michael Peevey president of the state's PUC, replacing Loretta Lynch. Lynch was expected to remain with the commission until the completion of her term, in January 2005. Peevey has served on the commission since March of 2002. He previously was president of Edison International. Davis also appointed Susan Kennedy commissioner, replacing Henry Duque.
Richard G. Newman, chairman and CEO of AECOM Technology Corp., joined the Sempra Energy board of directors.
Pension Plans May Slow Utility Growth in 2003
The economic downturn is increasing utility pension plan costs and liabilities.
While 401(k) stock option plans have increasingly displaced traditional pension plans in corporate America, many mature firms like electric utilities are still administering sizeable pension plans that in the recent economic downturn could compromise future earnings, according to a report by investment bank CIBC World Markets (CIBC).
Why it happened? Who lost in the bust? Who will survive to build another turbine?
High profit potential will attract new power plants, forcing prices down and stranding the state's long-term electricity purchases.
Let's consider three questions crucial to California's energy crisis and its plans for solution.
1. The original consortium of 15 energy companies, announced March 29, 2000, included American Electric Power, Cinergy, consolidated Edison Inc., Duke Enbergy, Edison International, Entergy, Exelon, firstEnergy Corp., FPL Group, PG&E Corp., Public Service Enterprise Group, Reliant Energy, Sempra Energy, Southern Company, and TXU.