Coal unit retirements about to begin

Energy Insight will be off on Thursday, Nov. 22 and Friday, Nov. 23 for the
Thanksgiving holiday.

Energy Insight News for Monday, November 26, 2001
Coal unit retirements about to begin

It's been long discussed-certainly cussed by some-but the slow trickle of
coal unit retirements is slated to begin.

According to Boulder, Colo.-based RDI POWERdat database, more than 28,000 MW
of coal-fired capacity could be taken out of the generation mix between now
and 2044.

While the names and numbers were culled from information provided by the
U.S. Department of Energy's Energy Information Administration, 2044 is a
long way out-particularly in an industry that is trying to regain its
stomach while riding the peaks and valleys of electricity restructuring.

Thus, industry watchers feel more comfortable talking about what is slated
to take place between 2001 and 2010. According to POWERdat, nearly 8,800 MW
of coal-fired capacity could fade away.

Most retirements will be smaller, older units where retrofitting new
emissions control equipment likely is prohibitively expensive, said Mark
Morey, an Arlington, Va.-based principal with RDI Consulting.

Environmental performance is the primary reason for closings, said Betsy
Vaninetti, a senior coal consultant with RDI.

"A lot of operators with plants built before 1970 and the Clean Air Act are
not going to spend a lot of money to retrofit old units," she said.

"When you have a unit which is 40, 50, 60 years old, it just is not very
efficient," said Robert Boyer, vice president of power generation for
Southern Co. and its operating unit Georgia Power. "If a component breaks on
one of these older, smaller units, we probably would let it go, or if the
environmental retrofit was too cost prohibitive, we also would just retire
it."

Southern is the company that potentially has the most units to be taken
off-line. The Atlanta, Ga.-based giant has 48 units and 16,319 MW of
capacity slated to be taken down between 2005 and 2044. Fifteen Southern
units totaling 1,323 MW are projected to be shuttered by 2011.
Read the entire story at http://www.energyinsight.com.

Also, catch the latest news headlines on Energy Insight Executive, updated
twice daily.

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Market Brief Wednesday, November 21
Stocks Close Change % Change
DJIA 9,834.68 (66.7) -0.67%
DJ 15 Util. 286.47 (5.7) -1.95%
NASDAQ 1,875.05 (5.46) -0.29%
S&P 500 1,137.03 (5.6) -0.49%

Market Vols Close Change % Change
AMEX (000) 112,402 (37,967.0) -25.25%
NASDAQ (000) 1,576,557 (404,033.0) -20.40%
NYSE (000) 1,022,669 (300,581.0) -22.72%

Commodities Close Change % Change
Crude Oil (Dec) 18.96 1.24 7.00%
Heating Oil (Dec) 0.5342 (0.002) -0.34%
Nat. Gas (Henry) 2.813 (0.037) -1.30%
Propane (Dec) 31.50 0.25 0.80%
Palo Verde (Dec) 26.25 0.00 0.00%
COB (Dec) 31.50 0.00 0.00%
PJM (Dec) 27.60 0.00 0.00%

Dollar US $ Close Change % Change
Australia $ 1.936 0.014 0.73%
Canada $ 1.60 0.008 0.50%
Germany Dmark 2.23 0.011 0.50%
Euro 0.8785 (0.004) -0.48%
Japan ?en 123.2 0.500 0.41%
Mexico NP 9.15 0.000 0.00%
UK Pound 0.7067 0.0021 0.30%

Foreign Indices Close Change % Change
Arg MerVal 205.28 0.41 0.20%
Austr All Ord. 3,272.50 (15.80) -0.48%
Braz Bovespa 12793.79 155.66 1.23%
Can TSE 300 7330.90 (50.30) -0.68%
Germany DAX 5087.03 (9.15) -0.18%
HK HangSeng 11173.92 (51.87) -0.46%
Japan Nikkei 225 10661.08 85.46 0.81%
Mexico IPC 5674.41 (24.78) -0.43%
UK FTSE 100 5,313.80 15.10 0.28%

Source: Yahoo! & TradingDay.com

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Executive News
Enron shares close at $5.01, down 28.33% from Tuesday
Enron stock Wednesday closed at $5.01/share, down $1.98, or 28.33%, from
Tuesday's close of $6.99. The stock fell to $6.66 on the open to a low of
$4.55. Volume was 114.8 million shares. Enron's 52-week high was $84.88, on
Dec 29, 2000. Dynegy, which has agreed to buy Enron, closed at $39.76, down
$1.94, or 4.65%. Volume was 10.1 million shares. Dynegy issued a statement
of support for Enron earlier in the day. The New York Stock Exchange will
have a half-day's trading Friday, the day after Thanksgiving.

California ISO sends $955 million power bill to DWR
The California Independent System Operator (ISO) Wednesday sent a $955
million bill to the state Department of Water Resources (DWR) for wholesale
power the agency purchased between January and July. The action complies
with a Nov. 7 Federal Energy Regulatory Commission order directing the ISO
to bill DWR and set a schedule for bringing past due amounts current by
February. In a draft schedule sent with its bill, the ISO said September and
October invoices will be sent to DWR in December and that the August amount
is in process. DWR has already set aside $1.2 billion for past power
purchases.

To subscribe to our Executive News Service, which is updated twice daily,
log on to http://www.energyinsight.com, or contact Platt's Direct Response
Team at 1-800-424-2908 (if outside the United States call 1-720-548-5700).
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