News Digest
June 15, 2000
Regional Summer Assessments.
The North American Electric Reliability Council was set to release its
annual summer reliability assessment on May 22, after this issue went
to press, but in the meantime, many other regional reliability councils
and independent system operators had already issued summer forecasts for
generation adequacy and system reliability.
- New York ISO. Forecasted
a peak demand of 30,200 megawatts, representing an increase of 1.7 percent
over 1999. It said it had completed a successful auction in the installed
capacity market to secure enough generation to satisfy the reserve requirement
(18 percent above demand) of 35,636 MW set by the New York State Reliability
Council.
- ISO New England. Forecasted
summer peak demand at 23,250 MW, compared to last year's peak of 22,544
MW, set July 6. Citing new plants coming online, plus favorable nuclear
availability, it predicted "an overall improvement" over the last few
summers.
- California ISO.
Warned of "slim" power reserves, predicting (with normal weather) a
summer peak load on the ISO-controlled grid of 46,250 MW (representing
37,950 MW of internal generation and 8,400 MW of imported power), compared
to a 1999 peak of 45,884 MW.
- MAIN. Predicted
"improved electric reliability" in the Midwest this summer, in light
of some 3,000 MW in new generating capacity expected to be online before
the high season arrived. MAIN anticipated a summer noncoincident peak
demand of 49,615 MW, compared to last year's peak of 49,027 MW.
- ECAR. Predicted
an 11.2 percent capacity margin in summer 2000, compared with 10.8 percent
last summer, due in part to the addition of new generation, reactivation
of mothballed generation, and a transfer of load certain obligations
from ECAR utilities to entities outside the region. It predicted a net
summer peak of 95,765 MW, or about 0.4 percent below last year's record
peak demand of 96,149 MW. Nevertheless, it warned that in-service schedules
for capacity additions "have the potential for slipping," representing
a possible 2.646 MW in shortfall. It added that "under all assumed severe
condition scenarios, the ECAR region will have insufficient resources
available during the peak summer demand period without a higher level
of transmission import."
- PJM ISO. Forecasted
an increase in summer peak load of about 1,400 MW, up to 51,161 for
2000, as compared with 49,751 MW for 1999. It said that no emergency
load procedures would be required if anticipated conditions occur, but
warned of emergency load controls imposed if "extreme weather" prevails.
It added that "May 9, 2000 temperatures reached levels that were last
recorded 125 years ago."
Mergers & Acquisitions
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LG&E + PowerGen.
Kentucky regulators OK'd the takeover of LG&E Energy Corp. by PowerGen
PLC, acknowledging no real merger savings through integration (since
PowerGen has "no business presence" in the United States), but citing
PowerGen's promise to set up its U.S. headquarters in Louisville-
a factor the PSC said would give "top priority" to economic development
in Kentucky. Case No. 2000-095, May 15, 2000 (Ky.P.S.C.).
NSP + New Century.
The North Dakota PSC OK'd the merger of Northern States Power Co.
and New Century Energies, finding that energy consumers in the region
would benefit through lower gas and electric prices, as well as
savings from more options in electric transmission service. Case
No. PU-400-99-418, April 12, 2000 (N.D.P.S.C.).
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Summer Emergency. The
Federal Energy Regulatory Commission on May 17 issued an interim order
announcing specific actions aimed at promoting electric reliability this
summer, and requesting comments on those actions as well as other steps
it can take to increase reliability. The commission acted in response
to what it expects will be another summer of potentially high peak demands,
and the commissioners used the opportunity to ask Congress for legislation
giving FERC authority over reliability. The commission OK'd five measures
through September 30:
- On-Site Generation.
Streamlining regulation to foster on-site generation;
- Demand-Side Management.
Facilitating DSM by waiving the prior notice required for filing of
new tariffs and encouraging proper calculation of incremental avoided
costs;
- Transmission Capacity.
Encouraging utilities to reassess capacity benefit margin, which represents
transmission capacity set aside and reserved for possible use for importing
out-of-area resources in the event of outages; and
- New Ideas.
Making FERC staff available to hear practical ideas promoting reliability.
Commissioner Curt Hébert
wrote a concurring opinion to "lament the lost opportunities of this order."
He believes the FERC should have done more earlier to promote building
of generation. Commissioner William Massey called for legislation from
Congress establishing one set of reliability rules, noting "that the existing
scheme of voluntary rules will not work in a competitive market." Docket
No. EL00-75-000, May 17, 2000 (F.E.R.C.).
Purchased Power Costs.
The Michigan PSC rejected a motion by a ratepayer coalition that the PSC
must disallow recovery of costs incurred by Detroit Edison to acquire
operating power reserves, on the theory that the reserves represented
excess capacity because the power purchases executed by the utility already
inherently were backed by the reserve margins of the sellers of those
principal resources.
According to the PSC, that
theory would mark a departure from how utilities determine reserve margin.
The PSC added, "Indeed, Detroit Edison experienced nondelivery of purchased
power on eleven days in 1998 in a total amount of 28,500 [megawatt-hours],
which undermines [the theory] regarding the reliability of purchased power."
Case No. U-11528-R, May 3, 2000 (Mich.P.S.C.).
Liability, Penalties, Software.
On May 8 various utilities, marketers, and other groups filed over 35
separate briefs in the massive case at the FERC to settle hundreds of
unresolved tariff issues involving the California ISO. (See News Digest,
May 15, 2000, p. 19.)
Several key issues stood out,
including (1) ISO liability for negligence, (2) ISO authority to penalize
traders under its market monitoring power, and (3) whether the ISO must
disclose algorithms and other details in its proprietary software. See
FERC Docket No. ER98-3760, reply briefs filed May 8, 2000.
- Liability- Issue 676.
Consumer advocates urged the FERC to enforce ISO liability only for
gross negligence, as it did in New York. The California ISO urged the
same: "The real fear should be that greater liability exposure would
likely dissuade transmission owning entities from even joining an RTO."
But Dynegy, Enron, PG&E, and various municipal utilities and irrigation
districts say because of differences in state law, the FERC should treat
the California ISO differently from New York and instead impose liability
for ordinary negligence. The California PUC stayed neutral.
- Penalties- Issue 631.
Enron, Dynegy, and the Western Power Trading Forum argue that the ISO
must "cleanse" its tariff of certain "offending provisions" that give
it the right to play both "judge and jury" and impose sanctions and
penalties on market participants when it uncovers "anomalous market
behavior." Even though the ISO is not a "market participant" in the
traditional sense, the marketers claim that "the ISO operates and controls
virtually the entire Ancillary Services market in California." They
add, "The ISO has a vested interest in dispelling any allegation that
its own negligence could have been a contributing factor in any market
anomaly É the ISO will always be biased towards finding parties to blame."
- Software Disclosure-
Issue 537. In October
1997, the FERC directed the ISO to make its computer algorithm publicly
available to all market participants, and various marketers and municipal
utilities have renewed that demand, calling for FERC to force the ISO
to reveal all components, including the computer program, network database,
tuning parameters, and "other heuristics" used by the ISO to operate
the algorithm. But the ISO maintains that some software is proprietary
and disclosure could violate confidentiality obligations under its contract
with its outside software vendor.
Installed Capacity. Citing
bidding behavior that looked like price manipulation, ISO New England
on May 8 renewed its request to the FERC for authority to terminate its
monthly auction market for installed capacity, effective June 1, and for
additional guidance on market monitoring and strategies to mitigate market
power. The move would leave the ISO with five remaining product markets,
each priced on an hourly basis: (1) Energy, (2) 10-Minute Spinning Reserve,
(3) 10-Minute Non-Spinning Reserve, (4) Automatic Generation Control,
and (5) 30-Minute Operating Reserves.
The ISO also formed a small
working group to formulate new models for a capacity reserve market, and
said it expected Harvey Reed of Constellation Power Source to chair the
group. (Reed also chaired the NEPOOL working group for congestion management
and multi-settlement systems.)
The installed capacity requirement
forces load-serving entities (LSEs) to maintain ownership or contract
rights to capacity to satisfy monthly peak load. The auction allowed bidders
to sell the excess or make up any deficiency.In
actual bidding, however, the ISO observed anomalies, including an unusual
"j-shaped" supply curve, coupled with monthly peaks rising from about
$1,000 per megawatt in mid-1999 to as high as $99,999 in mid-winter 1999-2000.
In January, in fact, the ISO
found it necessary to reprice one particular bid- which dropped the clearing
price from $10,000 per megawatt all the way to zero- after the ISO found
that one bid of over 2,000 MW at a price substantially higher than $10,000
had represented over 60 percent of the total non-zero bids for the month.
By contrast, the ISO found
that an "active" bilateral market for capacity had emerged in New England,
totaling 27,900 MW for March 2000, at contract lengths ranging from one
month to a year or longer, which it said exceeded NEPOOL's entire installed
capability. But the ISO acknowledged that the bilateral market could represent
the "trading and retrading" of the same megawatts, "to a degree not easily
possible to quantify." FERC Docket Nos. EL00-62-001, ER00- 2052-002,
filed May 8, 2000.
Market Chaos. Alleging
that software problems and communications failures were so pervasive that
action was needed "to avert a potential disaster this summer," New York
State Electric & Gas Co. petitioned the FERC to suspend all market pricing
programs operated by the New York ISO for energy, reserve capacity, and
ancillary services, for the period June 1 through Oct. 31, and to revert
to cost-based pricing.
But cooler heads soon prevailed,
and NYSEG agreed to withdraw its request, on consultation with other members
of the ISO, including Central Hudson Gas & Electric, Consolidated Edison,
Niagara Mohawk, Orange & Rockland, the Long Island Power Authority, and
Rochester Gas & Electric. The scaled-back proposal asks the ISO to work
out problems internally, and report back to the FERC. See FERC Docket
No. EL00-70, complaint filed April 24, 2000, amended May 10, 2000.
Must-Run Plants. The
California PUC weighed in on the side of the ISO and a "buyers' coalition"
of investor-owned electric utilities in a dispute of whether so-called
RMR (reliability must-run) plants should earn a profit when dispatched
by the ISO. The dispute involves the private power producers, Southern
Energy Delta and Southern Energy Potrero, which own three power plants
in the San Francisco "load pocket."
Southern argues that when the
ISO dispatches "must-run" plants, it should pay owners a "fixed option
payment" (FOP) that compensates them for both incremental operating costs
and fixed capital costs. Anything less, says Southern, would amount to
a "zero-profit" rate.
The ISO, the utilities, and
the FERC trial staff all oppose Southern's argument, pointing out that
in most cases Southern does not need to interrupt sales of output from
the plants under profitable bilateral contracts in order to comply with
the ISO's dispatch orders, so that revenues from bilateral sales are available
as a credit against fixed capital costs. Otherwise, say the buyers, Southern
would profit from "market power."
Yet Southern countered, "The
parties seem to suggest that 'locational rents' are the same as the exercise
of market power, which they are not." Southern argued that even the buyers'
witness Larry Ruff "conceded at hearing that there was a difference between
the ability to capitalize on good locations and the exercise of market
power." FERC Docket No. ER98-495-000, filed April 28, 2000.
Stranded Costs. In an
interim order, the Illinois commission allowed Commonwealth Edison Co.
to revise its plan for calculating market prices to set transition charges
to recover stranded costs. Com Ed would replace the "neutral fact finder"
(NFF) process that had required utilities and marketers to submit summaries
of contracts to a committee appointed by the commission.
In his separate concurring
opinion, commission chairman Richard L. Mathias said that utilities, consumers
and retail suppliers all had questioned the NFF approach- that it could
create a "real likelihood" of a "re-monopolization" of the Illinois electric
industry.
Com Ed's new plan would calculate
peak market prices and forward transaction prices along with bid/ask prices
from transactions posted on Altrade and Bloomberg "PowerMatch," two real-time,
online electronic power trading exchanges. For off-peak pricing, the utility
will use historical day-ahead data published in Power Market Week's
Daily Price Report. To develop hourly prices for each monthly peak-
and off-peak period, Com Ed would use locational marginal prices from
the 1999 PJM-West Interconnection. The price shape data is then used to
translate average block price data into hour-by-hour market values. No.
00-0259, April 27, 2000 (Ill.C.C.).
Electric Choice. Regulators
in Virginia OK'd the state's first pilot program (in Richmond, served
by Virginia Power) for electric supplier choice, to be available Sept.
1. The program will double in 2001, when another 35,000 customers become
eligible in a service area yet to be determined. It was described as "large
enough to attract competitive suppliers yet manageable enough to avoid
administrative pitfalls." Case No. PUE980813, April 28, 2000 (Va.C.C.).
Utility Marketing Affiliates.
The Wisconsin PSC ruled that utilities and their affiliates could
continue to share resources with all costs fully allocated- except where
such sharing is expressly barred, as in natural gas marketing. It found
no present need for rules on standards of conduct, but said it would continue
to monitor dealings between utilities and affiliates through the existing
law, including the state's holding company statute. No. 05-BU-101,
April 26, 2000 (Wis.P.S.C.).
Medical Equipment. The
New York PSC called on utilities to improve service to customers using
electricity to run life support equipment (LSE). It said that any customer
information system should be capable of identifying customer accounts
using LSE in case of outages, voltage instability, or brownout conditions.
It recommended that utilities install devices like Central Hudson's "Advisor"
or Con Ed's POND. Case No. 00-E-0811, May 4, 2000 (N.Y.P.S.C.).
Shopping Credits. To
discourage large-volume customers from churning accounts, the Delaware
PSC allowed Delaware Electric Co-op Inc. to force customers with demands
greater than 300 kilowatts to stay on with the co-op if they return to
take bundled electric distribution and commodity service. The PSC set
the co-op's shopping credit at 5.197 cents per kilowatt-hour, ignoring
the co-op's protest that the figure exceeded Delmarva P&L's shopping credit
(4.846 cents) and would offer a "false price signal." Docket No. 99-457,
April 25, 2000 (Del.P.S.C.).
Real-time Pricing. Responding
to complaints from the Georgia Textile Manufacturers Association and Georgia
Industrial Group, the Georgia PSC modified how Georgia Power calculates
real-time pricing rates paid by its largest industrial customers, requiring
the utility to use the average cost. The change should lower rates by
$7 million annually. Docket No. 11708-U, April 18, 2000 (Georgia P.S.C.).
Shopping Credits. The
Midwest Marketers' Coalition opposed the transition plan settlement proposed
on April 17 between the Ohio PUC staff and FirstEnergy, claiming it would
set an artificially low shopping credit. "In both Massachusetts and Rhode
Island, the shopping credits were set below the cost of supplying retail
customers," claimed Scott Brown, spokesman for the coalition. "After two
years of competition in both states, less than 1 percent of residential
customers have switched." Case No. 99-1212-EL-ETP, filed April 17,
2000 (Ohio P.U.C.).
Gas Pilot Programs. The
Iowa board allowed MidAmerican Energy Co. to extend a gas sales pilot
program that offers long-term contracts to smaller customers at a fixed
commodity price, despite allegations that the program might hamper the
development of gas competition in the state. Docket No. RPU-97-6, April
12, 2000 (Iowa U.B.).
Natural Gas Rates. The
Wyoming PSC allowed Questar Gas Co. to continue to earn an 11.83 percent
return on common equity, saying it was reluctant to penalize the company
for having filed the rate case voluntarily to reduce rates. Docket
Nos. 30010-GP-98-46, et al., April 10, 2000 (Wyo.P.S.C.).
Purchased Power. Noting
the success of competitive markets in wholesale generation, the Alabama
PSC allowed Alabama Public Service Co. to revise its longstanding plan
for recovering the fixed costs of electricity supply. The revised plan
will set a power rate factor based on the estimated cost of purchased
power, excluding any energy charge costs recoverable through the utility's
automatic adjustment clause. Dockets 18117, 18416, April 10, 2000 (Ala.P.S.C.).
Affiliate Rules. New
Mexico regulators set a code of conduct governing anticompetitive practices
in transactions between utilities and affiliates, covering issues ranging
from access to transmission and distribution lines and disclosure of customer
information. Case No. 3106, April 4, 2000 (N.M.P.R.C.).
Supplier Certification.
The Texas PUC set a public hearing for June 15 on proposed rules for certifying
retail electric providers (REPs) in the newly competitive market scheduled
to begin in 2002. Final rules were expected by late July. Project No.
21082.
Union Lockouts. A federal
appeals court upheld a ruling by the National Labor Relations Board that
Central Illinois Public Service Co. did not commit an unlawful labor practice
when it "locked out" union employees who, in lieu of striking, had instituted
"inside game" tactics, such as working "to the rule" and refusing voluntary
overtime. The court said the utility was entitled to counter such activities.
Local 702, IBEW v. Cent. Ill. Pub. Serv. Co., No. 99-1137, May 9, 2000
(D.C.Cir.).
Transmission Pricing.
A federal appeals court ruled that an electric utility cannot unilaterally
modify the terms of an existing transmission service contract under the
Mobile-Sierra doctrine, even though the contract rates are much
higher than they would have been if negotiated at a later date under the
provider's open access transmission tariff (OATT) filed under FERC Order
888, as long as the buyer only is acquiring "entitlements" power, and
not "requirements" service.
The case involved Potomac Electric
Power Co., which sought pricing relief on a transmission service contract
it had signed with Allegheny Energy back in 1987 for delivery of power
imports from Ohio Edison. Potomac Elec. Power Co. v. FERC, No. 99-1209,
May 2, 2000 (D.C.Cir.).
Municipal Franchise Fees.
A Texas court ruled that where the PUC had OK'd a rate adjustment clause
to allow electric utilities to bill ratepayers for franchise fees concurrently
as such fees were paid to municipal governments, without a formal rate
case, the utilities could not then call on the PUC to block the municipalities
from later assessing retroactive increases in the franchise fees, billed
to the utilities on a percentage-of-revenues basis. Central P&L Co.
v. Texas PUC, No. 03-99-00204-CV, May 4, 2000 (Tex.App.-Austin).
Clean Air Act. A federal
appeals court ruled that it was proper for Congress under the Clean Air
Act to delegate authority to Native American nations (with consent from
the Environmental Protection Agency) to regulate air quality on all land
within tribal reservations, including activities conducted by persons
not members of the tribe. Dissenting judge Ginsburg said that the delegation
of authority should extend only to the development of tribal implementation
plans. Arizona Pub. Serv. Co. v. EPA, Nos. 98-1203 et al., May 5, 2000
(D.C.Cir.).
Gas Pipelines
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Certification.
In a decision that drew the wrath of Sen. Frank Murkowski (Rep.,
Alaska), chairman of the Senate's Committee on Natural Resources,
the FERC certified construction of the Independence and SupplyLink
gas pipeline projects, but told project sponsors ANR and Transcontinental
Gas Pipe Line Co. to first submit proof of contracts in hand with
nonaffiliated companies to subscribe at least 35 percent of project
capacity. Docket No. CP97-315-003 et al., 91 FERC ¶61,102,
April 25, 2000.
Murkowski, while pleased
with the FERC's project approval, was still unhappy about the evidentiary
requirement, and made his feelings known on April 27, two days after
the FERC decision was issued, at the hearing where he had invited
all four FERC commissioners to comment on pending federal legislation
on electricity restructuring.
"I will want an explanation
from each of you as to why you are not doing everything you can
to get this pipeline built as fast and as cheaply as possible,"
he warned.
"The commission's actions
in the Independence pipeline case seem to indicate that you really
don't want this pipeline built."
Citygate Constraints.
The New York PSC approved a proposal by Rochester Gas and Electric
Corp. For easing system constraints on the amount of pipeline nominations
that can be made through each of the citygates used to supply RG&E's
natural gas distribution system, by requiring gas marketers operating
on the company's system to file plans with RG&E stating expected
deliveries on each pipeline at different load levels for each month
of the upcoming season.
When RG&E must shift
load between the two delivery points and additional costs are incurred,
it will impose a surcharge on marketers whose deliveries were not
within the system constraints, and then pass back the amount collected
to its retail customers. Case 99-G-1498, April 24, 2000 (N.Y.P.S.C.).
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Auction Prices. While
conceding that the $47.5 million price tag ($119 per kilowatt) was "below
outcomes from other generation asset auctions," the New York PSC approved
the sale of the 400-MW Albany Steam Station to PSEG Power LLC.
The PSC dismissed allegations
by the town of Bethlehem that the price was insufficient, saying that
it came as the result of "an extensive marketing effort" to attract "the
broadest available range of potential purchasers." The PSC also noted
that differences in plant fuels, vintages, regional market prices, and
other variables make comparisons among auctions difficult.
"While the Town complains that
the station is more valuable than the prices PSEG Power offered, no bidder
shared the Town's view," the PSC observed. Case 94-E-0098, April 26,
2000 (N.Y.P.S.C.).
Generation Divestiture.
The Pennsylvania PUC approved the sale by DQE Inc., parent company of
Duquesne Light Co., of its seven electric generating plants to Orion Power
Holdings of Baltimore for $1.7 billion. As part of the deal, Orion Power
Holdings will become the provider of last resort to Duquesne Light customers.
Docket No. A-00110150 F0023, April 13, 2000 (Pa.P.UC.).
Transfers to Affiliates.
The Pennsylvania PUC OK'd generation asset transfers to non-regulated
affiliates for both Baltimore Gas & Electric Co. and Public Service Electric
& Gas Co.:
- BGE would transfer to Constellation
Generation Inc. its 20.99 percent stake in the Keystone Generating Station
and its 10.56 percent stake in the Conemaugh Generating Station (all
at book value), as well as its partial equity interest in Safe Harbor
Power Corp., a hydroelectric power producer. Docket Nos. A-110003F0002
et al., April 27, 2000 (Pa.P.U.C.).
- PSE&G would transfer its
interests in Keystone (22.84 percent), Conemaugh (22.5 percent), and
the Peach Bottom Atomic Power Station (42.49 percent) to PSE&G Power
LLC and its wholly owned subsidiaries, PSEG Fossil and PSEG Nuclear,
representing $2.443 billion in assets, to be recorded by the transferee
at a book value between $200 million and $400 million. Docket Nos.
A-110003F0002 et al., April 27, 2000 (Pa.P.U.C.).
Plant Certification.
Saying that it must not micromanage electric companies as the industry
moves toward a competitive market, the Ohio Power Siting Board issued
a certificate of environmental compatibility and public need for construction
and operation of the 425-MW West Lorain Combustion Turbine project to
Ohio Edison, a wholly owned subsidiary of FirstEnergy. The board said
it is up to Ohio Edison to decide whether to curtail load or shut down
the project based on operational constraints, especially transmission
constraints on the FirstEnergy system. Case No. 99-540-EL-BGN, April
17, 2000 (Ohio Siting Board).
Studies & Reports
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Smart Meters.
Any move to integrate communications capability into electronic
single-phase meters will tilt the market in favor of utility meter
manufacturers, according to the consulting firm Frost & Sullivan.
Otherwise, the report
predicts a new era of growth for the metering industry, propelled
by a growing economy and rising electric demand.
"Tremendous openings
exist for vendors that can successfully manufacture and market the
next generation of meters," says Frost & Sullivan analyst Patrick
Hodges. See www.frost.com.
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CMS Energy Corp. is
participating as an asset investor by contributing access to some of its
pipeline rights-of-way in a new nationwide broadband telecommunications
network being built by Denver-based Aerie Networks. Aerie is planning
to complete its 20,000-plus-mile national network in 2003. CMS Energy
initially will hold about a 2.5 percent investment in Aerie in exchange
for providing access to rights-of-way held by subsidiaries. Aerie also
will use the rights-of-way of BP Amoco, Buckeye Partners L.P., Explorer
Pipeline Co., Kinder Morgan, Marathon Ashland Pipe Line, National Fuel
Gas Supply Corp., Plantation Pipe Line Co., PG&E Corp., Sempra Communications,
Sun Pipe Line Co., and TEPPCO- all equity owners in Aerie.
Atlas Technologies LLC,
a partially owned subsidiary of Resource America Inc. and provider of
web-based billing and customer care solutions to the deregulating energy
and converged network services industries, has licensed its Readi Systems
suite of software applications to Equitable Resources Inc., an
integrated energy exploration, production, transmission, distribution,
and marketing company. Other clients of Atlas Technologies include Dominion
Retail Services and FirstEnergy Corp.
Avista Corp. has engaged
Merrill Lynch as its investment bank and strategic adviser for
Avista Labs to assist in evaluating the best ways to maximize the
shareholder value inherent in its fuel cell technology. Avista Labs is
pioneering the development and commercialization of an integrated, modular
proton exchange membrane fuel cell power system targeted for the residential
and small commercial markets throughout the world. Merrill Lynch will
consider all options, including financial structuring and an initial public
offering.
News Digest was compiled
by Carl J. Levesque, associate editor, Lori Burkhart and Phillip Cross,
contributing legal editors, and Bruce W. Radford, editor-in-chief. For
more frequent updates, see www.pur.com.
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