Fortnightly Magazine - July 2010

Vendor Neutral

Kiewit chooses Alstom equipment for Dominion and Northland Power plants; Abengoa Solar reaches 143 MW with thermal plant startup; S&C Electric to engineer Tessera Solar project; Canada and Hitachi cooperate on carbon sequestration; Black & Veatch to manage PSE&G smart-grid project; AEP selects OPower for customer engagement; SRP picks Elster for AMI rollout; Oncor installs millionth smart meter; plus contract and technology announcements from ABB, Arcadian Networks, Beacon Power, Catalyst Renewables, eMeter, Itron, Open Systems International, Siemens, SunEdison, Tesla Motors and

Transactions (July 2010)

TransCanada floats $1.25 billion in a two-tranche bond offering; KinderMorgan sells $1 billion in notes; Xcel Energy raises its offering to $500 million; plus bond issues from Calpine, SDG&E, FPL, PSE&G and Entergy, totaling more than $4 billion in May 2010.

Guidelines in Practice

FERC owns more than one enforcement tool. Besides civil penalties, it can require compliance plans or disgorgement of unjust profits, or condition, suspend, or revoke market-based rate authority, NGA certificate authority, or NGA blanket certificate authority. And lacking criminal penalty authority itself, FERC can refer matters to the U.S. Department of Justice for criminal prosecution. Moreover, while defining an organization as any entity other than a natural person, FERC nevertheless will continue to determine civil penalties for natural person violators, looking to the guidelines for guidance in setting such penalties.

Getting Engaged

How to avoid a Texas-style backlash.

Is customer engagement more about damage control, or helping customers understand their options?

V