|
|
Enron Mail |
Power Supply All plants are running smoothly with exception of Colstrip #4 - Colstrip 4 has a boiler tube leak that was discovered yesterday. The steam leak is impinging on other tubes and will create further damage if not scheduled off-line soon. Unit has been scheduled for 36-hour outage starting a ramp down today at 2200 hours MST and will off-line at midnight. Once the market settled down the prices have been steadily sliding in both gas and electric. We have been trading around our assets - playing the spark spread. We are actively pursuing parking and lending agreements with Reliant and El Paso, discussing terms for a purchase of firm power or tolling from Engage, and evaluating purchase of non-firm power from Enserco. Finance PGE was downgraded by Fitch this week to BBB+ from A on secured debt and BBB from A- on unsecured debt. Fitch"s actions move them out of step with Moody's and Standard & Poors. The downgrade will cost PGE 20 to 40 basis points on our short term borrowing lines. Fitch's actions are directly related to Enron's downgrade and the acquisition of PGE by NW Natural. We are watching the other two rating agencies to see if they take similar actions. PGE is still locked out of the long term debt market as a result of Enron's situation and we are currently being advised that we will not be able to enter the capital markets for long term debt until next year at the soonest. Human Resources We have been holding small group employees meetings with officers all week to get information out to our employees about the Enron / Dynegy transaction and to discuss the status of their 401K plan. The employee response has been one of anger and disgust as many of them have lost significant value in their 401K as a result of being heavily invested in Enron stock. Regulatory Affairs We expect to receive an order on UE-115 (general rate case) reconsideration request next week. PGE, Sierra Pacific, Nevada Power, Avista, and Montana Power jointly filed with FERC the TransConnect rate filing which requests performance based rates for a for-profit Transco into which PGE and other western utilities could contribute their transmission assets. The rates are pro forma in nature and no action on transferring any assets to TransConnect will be taken until we evaluate the business case that results from FERC's decision and guidance on our pro forma rates. PGE / NW Natural Transaction We continue to work with NWN on the OPUC filing which was to be filed today but has been delayed until early next week. The most significant issue is the rate plan and what share of the savings from the transaction will be given to customers and what is the form of that refund. We are also working on the FERC and SEC applications which will be filed in the future. Integration Planning has started with the Integration Team focusing on an overall project plan for the effort.
|