Company Briefs

Exelon Settles in Constellation Case

Oct 29, 2013

News briefs on companies in PJM Interconnection: Constellation, American Electric Power, Somerset County Rural Electric Cooperative, Exelon, NRG Energy.

Exelon agreed to pay a $500,000 penalty and disgorge about $146,000 in profits to settle a Federal Energy Regulatory Commission’s case alleging that Constellation Energy Commodities Group submitted false information to the California ISO in 2010. FERC alleged Constellation incorrectly designated transactions as “wheeling through” the state although the company lacked a point outside California to deliver the power to. Exelon bought Constellation in 2012.

More: Reuters

PJM’s Ogburn Heads PA Coop

Russ Ogborn, formerly of PJM — Russ Ogborn

Rus Ogburn, former manager of performance compliance at PJM, has returned home to become general manager of Somerset County Rural Electric Cooperative. The Somerset County native was at PJM about 11 years, earning a law degree from Temple University while there. He also holds a B.S. in physics and an M.S. in electrical power engineering.

More: Daily American

Writedowns Dent AEP Earnings

American Electric Power’s third-quarter earnings dropped 11% on writedowns associated mainly with regulatory rulings on a Texas power plant project and the Big Sandy scrubber project in Kentucky. The board of directors nevertheless raised its quarterly dividend by $0.01 to $0.50 per share. The company said it is on track to separate its Ohio generation and wires businesses by the end of the year.

More: Wall Street Journal

Batteries Spark Distributed Solar

NRG Energy and Exelon Corp.’s Constellation unit say interest in combining solar power with battery storage has surged in the year since Hurricane Sandy knocked out power to millions of homes and businesses on the East Coast.

Customers with solar power were frustrated to discover that losing power from local utilities also knocked out the inverters that connect rooftop panels to the grid, leaving them unable to tap the electricity they were producing. Battery storage — which adds more than 20% to the cost of a typical 10-kilowatt solar system for a four-bedroom home — can solve that problem.

More: Bloomberg

Constellation Invests in Zero-Emission Bus Co.

Constellation joined an Edison International unit in investing in Proterra Inc., a maker of electric buses. The utility companies joined other funders in a $24 million Series C financing round.