The U.S. District Court for New Mexico has ruled that the City of Las Cruces, NM, failed to meet the burden of proof required to take over through condemnation the electric facilities owned by El Paso Electric Co. (EPE) [City of Las Cruces v. El Paso Electric Co., No.
Despite a recent delay, the stage
appears set for online trading
in electric transmission capacity.
THIS IS ONLY A TEST (EM FOR NOW.
But come January, if all goes well, the OASIS program will start up in real time, with customers venturing onto the Internet to place reservations for capacity on the nation's electric transmission grid.
Nancy Schultz was promoted to engineering and construction services director at Transcontinental Gas Pipe Line Corp. She joined Transco in 1982.
Columbia Energy Services has hired Greg Davis at its Pittsburgh office. He previously worked for the Natural Gas Clearinghouse and Exxon Corp.
James S. Thomson has joined Consolidated Natural Gas Co. as president of its new subsidiary, CNG International Corp. He last worked at Edison International's Mission Energy Co.
Westinghouse Electric Corp. has promoted Randy H.
After four years and four tries, El Paso Electric Co. (EPE) has finally got a plan, and a ticket out of bankruptcy. EPE's fourth amended reorganization plan has been approved by the federal bankruptcy court as well as federal and state regulators, and received near-unanimous acceptance by creditors and stockholders.
The plan proposes two alternative methods of emerging from bankruptcy. Under the preferred alternative, EPE would use the proceeds from an underwritten public offering of first mortgage bonds to repay the claims of existing secured creditors in full.
Faced with the possibility that existing contracts to provide electric service to Holloman Air Force Base and the White Sands Missile Range would lapse if the two facilities carry out plans to solicit competitive bids for their power-supply requirements, El Paso Electric Co. has convinced both the U.S. Army and U.S. Air Force to continue taking service in the traditional way for an extended period of time.
Central and South West Corp. notified bankrupt El Paso Electric Co. (EPE) on June 9 that it has terminated the companies' proposed merger. CSW had informed EPE on May 23 that it had breached the merger agreement by participating in discussions about and spending large sums on a possible stand-alone reorganization plan.
The CSW board of directors rejected EPE's request to extend the merger agreement for six months until December 8.
A Texas Court of Appeals in Austin has turned back an appeal by El Paso Electric Co. (EPE) challenging a state commission ruling that disallowed rate recovery of the utility's investment in the Palo Verde Unit 3 nuclear generating plant as excess capacity. It rejected the utility's claim that use of the plant for base-load and offsystem wholesales warranted cost recovery.
The Palo Verde disallowance had come in a 1992 commission rate order.
Central and South West Corp. (CSW) has notified El Paso Electric Co. (EPE) that it has breached the companies' merger agreement by participating in discussions about and spending large sums on a possible stand-alone reorganization plan. CSW said it was not terminating the merger, but merely protecting its rights. On May 22, CSW received a request from EPE to extend the merger agreement for six months, until December 8, 1995.
Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) administrative law judge Jerome Nelson has found the proposed merger between Central and South West Corp. (CSW) and the bankrupt El Paso Electric Co. (EPE) consistent with the public interest (Docket Nos. EC94-7-000 and ER94-898-000). However, Judge Nelson recommended that approval be subject to a FERC decision on a number of comparability issues. (The FERC had issued an earlier opinion imposing comparability as part of the merger deal, but excepting ERCOT members.
Our 13th annual electric rate-case survey covers electric rate orders issued between
April 1, 1994, and March 31, 1995.
The survey tabulates rates of return on common equity (ROE) approved by state public utility commissions (PUCs) in major electric rate orders, but also includes some cases in which rate of return was not directly at issue, or where a rate adjustment resulted from a settlement agreement.