TransCanada, spurned in its attempts to push through the Keystone XL Pipeline last year, announced it will buy Columbia Pipeline Group for $13 billion, including the assumption of $2.8 billion in debt. The deal will give it access to the Appalachian shale plays.
“The acquisition represents a rare opportunity to invest in an extensive, competitively positioned, growing network of regulated natural gas pipeline and storage assets in the Marcellus and Utica shale gas regions,” TransCanada CEO Russ Girling said. Columbia Pipeline has 15,000 miles of pipelines, as well as underground storage and processing facilities.
TransCanada, which just last month bought the 778-MW Ironwood natural gas-fired generating station in Lebanon, Pa., said it will sell off some of its other generating assets in the Northeast to finance the Columbia deal, including Ironwood. Among its plants are the 2,480-MW Ravenswood Generating Facility in Queens, N.Y., and the 560-MW Ocean State Power station in Rhode Island.
More: TransCanada; Bloomberg Business
AEP’s Pablo Vegas Leaving for Columbia Gas
AEP Ohio President Pablo Vegas, who has been the face of the company during its ongoing battle to secure guaranteed rates for some of its aging generating plants, is leaving the company to run Columbia Gas.
Columbia Gas oversees natural gas transmission and distribution in Ohio, Kentucky, Maryland, Massachusetts, Pennsylvania and Virginia. Vegas, 42, was also named executive vice president of Columbia parent NiSource.
Vegas has been with American Electric Power since 2005. He will join Columbia Gas in May, by which time Ohio regulators are expected to decide on AEP’s proposed power purchase agreements.
More: Columbus Business First
Duke’s Gates Going to Calpine, Repko Assuming His Position
Duke Energy’s Charlie Gates is leaving the company to become executive vice president of power operations for Calpine. Gates had overseen all non-nuclear generation assets at Duke, a fleet of about 42 GW. Gates is to oversee Calpine’s fleet of 84 power plants with a capacity of about 27 GW.
Gates will be replaced at Duke by Regis Repko, currently senior vice president of nuclear governance, projects and engineering. Repko will assume the title of chief fossil and hydro officer, in charge of the company’s coal, natural gas and hydro units in six states.
Repko has been with Duke since 1985.
More: Charlotte Business Journal
Coal, Alternative Energy Deal with Money Troubles
Two energy companies from opposite ends of the spectrum — coal producer Peabody Energy and alternative energy developer SunEdison — are reporting financial woes.
Peabody reported to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission that it probably won’t be in compliance with its financial requirements by the end of the month, and it might have to file for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection.
SunEdison said problems in its accounting processes led to a delay in its annual stockholders report. It was also dealt a blow this month when it could not secure the financing necessary to acquire rooftop solar company Vivint.
More: USA TODAY
Alevo Sites Energy Storage System in Del.
Energy storage company Alevo is locating an 8-MW battery storage system in a retired oil-fired generator building in Lewes, Del. The grid-linked system, which is capable of delivering 4 MWh, will be the largest of its kind in the state.
The project, called GridBank, is the first for the Concord, N.C.-based company. The company said it plans to deploy more GridBanks in PJM this year under an agreement with Customized Energy Solutions.
Alevo will be able to sell ancillary power into the PJM regulation market while also providing the Lewes Public Works Department with the ability to shave peak demand for its customers, the company said.
More: Alevo; Charlotte Business Journal
Investors Sweeten the Pot In Cleco Acquisition Bid
Louisiana utility Cleco would give a credit of $370 for the average residential and small-business customer, amounting to a free month of electricity this summer, under a proposal to sell the company for $4.9 billion to a consortium of foreign investors. Cleco President Darren J. Olagues said the credit would be paid within 30 days of the closing of the sale.
The state Public Service Commission last month refused to allow investors to purchase the 80-year-old utility that serves about 286,000 customers in southern Louisiana. The investors have requested a rehearing, which the commission will consider this week.
The Cleco coalition, led by Macquarie Infrastructure and Real Assets, and which includes British Columbia Investment Management Corp., has committed to paying $101 million in upfront rate credits.
More: The Advocate
Sharyland Proposes Tx Upgrade To Meet Wind Energy Demand
Sharyland Utilities has filed a request with the Public Utility Commission of Texas for a $77.4 million transmission line upgrade in the Texas Panhandle to accommodate the growth of wind energy in the region.
The project would add a second set of high-voltage lines on 166 miles of transmission infrastructure that Sharyland completed about three years ago. A study by ERCOT, which runs 90% of the Texas grid but not the Panhandle, estimates the area’s wind capacity is 4,300 MW and is growing.
“Given the dramatic and continued expansion of wind generation in the region, Sharyland should proceed with installation of the second circuit,” PUCT Commissioner Kenneth Anderson wrote in a September memo supporting the move.
More: Amarillo Globe-News
Nebraska’s Largest Solar Farm Opens for Business
Nebraska’s largest solar array is now in business following a March 14 ribbon cutting near Callaway in Custer County. Innovative Solar developed the 600-kW project.
The project was partially funded by a U.S. Department of Agriculture renewable energy grant. Custer Public Power District has agreed to buy the solar farm’s power output.
More: North Platte Telegraph
Peabody Energy Selling Share Of Prairie State Energy Campus
Peabody Energy, fighting to stay out of bankruptcy, is selling its 5.06% share of the Prairie State Energy Campus in Illinois to Wabash Valley Power Association for $57 million. Its original investment in the troubled power plant was $247 million.
The coal-fired plant endured cost overruns and construction delays and is struggling to compete on the open wholesale energy market. The remaining shareholders, mostly Illinois cities such as Batavia and Geneva that own shares through their membership with the Northern Illinois Municipal Power Agency, should not be affected by Peabody’s sale of its shares, a Peabody spokesperson said.
An industry observer, Sandy Buchanan, executive director of the Institute for Energy Economics and Financial Analysis, said municipal shareholders will be left with a large amount of debt that will be a burden on their ratepayers. “All these communities were promised that the cost of power from Prairie State was less than market [price], and the reverse has happened,” Buchanan said.
More: Kane County Chronicle
Report: Aqua America Made Abortive $11B Bid for ITC
Water utility Aqua America apparently made an unsuccessful bid for transmission owner ITC Holdings before the company agreed to be acquired last month by Fortis, according to The Philadelphia Inquirer. The Inquirer quoted from a Fortis merger statement that said “a director of ITC affiliated with Party G, a U.S. publicly traded company, informed [ITC] that Party G might be interested in exploring a potential merger” at a price of about $11 billion.
The only two directors of ITC “affiliated” with public companies, according to the Inquirer, are Aqua CEO Christopher Franklin and Lee Stewart, who is also on the board of a New Jersey plastics maker called AEP Inc. (no connection to American Electric Power). A Wall Street analyst identified Aqua America and Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway as potential buyers of ITC in a report to investors.
If successful, the Bryn Mawr, Pa.-based company, which runs water and sewer companies in eight states, would have been offering almost twice its own $6.4 billion stock market value. ITC chose instead to be acquired by Fortis, which offered $11.3 billion. Aqua America declined to comment on the report.