![](media/image1.jpeg){width="8.5in" height="3.5027777777777778in"}U.S.
DEPARTMENT OF ENERGY

**Office of Energy Assurance**

**ENERGY ASSURANCE DAILY**

**December 5, 2003**

**Electricity**

**Thousands Lose Power in Wisconsin and Michigan\
**A power outage that started in northeastern Wisconsin late Thursday
night left approximately 60,000 Upper Peninsula residents without power.
American Transmission Company (ATC) said the outage, which began
approximately 11:33 p.m. and lasted for about three hours, was caused
when electric transmission lines that connect northeastern Wisconsin
with the Upper Peninsula tripped out of service. Company officials say
the system is designed to sustain the outage of one of the three lines.
But when two lines tripped out of service, the third was unable to
sustain the connection. ATC indicated that at least 57,000 customers
were without power, but since that number includes wholesale customers
including some municipalities such as the city of Negaunee, which are
counted as a single customer, the actual number of residents without
power would be larger.

[**http://online.wsj.com/article/0,,BT_CO_20031205_001029,00.html**](http://online.wsj.com/article/0,,BT_CO_20031205_001029,00.html)

**Note:** According to the EIA-417 incident report filed by WI Power and
Light, approximately 36,000 customers were without power. Power has been
restored to all residential customers as of Friday afternoon. Industrial
customers are anticipated to have power restored over the weekend. Cause
is unknown at this time.

**More Than 140,000 Without Power in Washington State**

Washington state utility Puget Sound Energy said on Thursday that more
than 140,000 of its customers were without power as strong winds knocked
down trees into power lines. \"We are still very much in the middle of
the storm,\" spokeswoman Dorothy Bracken said, noting that fallen trees
were also blocking roads, hampering repair crews as they attempted to
reach affected areas. The Bellevue, Washington-based utility has around
970,000 customers. Most of those impacted were located just outside
Seattle along the Cascade Mountains in King County.

<http://powermarketers.netcontentinc.net/newsreader.asp?ppa=8knsoZZgiovtusTSigw11rbfeiZv>

**Clinton Nuke Unit 1 Resumes Operation**\
AmerGen Power Company reported that the Clinton unit 1 resumed
production following a manual shutdown on Thursday. The unit was shut
down after an electrical bus tripped causing a feedwater regulating
valve to open and a loss of service to two feedwater pumps.\
Bloomberg 11:01 Dec 5, 2003

**Exelon\'s Braidwood 2**

Exelon reconnected its Braidwood unit 2 to the grid at 6:13 am this
morning. The unit automatically tripped on Wednesday when a feedwater
pump shutdown during routine testing.\
Bloomberg 11:29 Dec 5, 2003

**PSEG's Hope Creek Nuke Output Falls to 77%**

The PSEG Hope Creek nuclear plant was reported to be operating at 77% of
capacity Friday morning.

Bloomberg 9:25 Dec 5, 2003

**Petroleum**

**Shell Replenishes Gasoline Supply at Las Vegas\
**Shell Oil Products ran out of conventional regular and midgrade
gasoline at Las Vegas racks but has received an overdraw from Kinder
Morgan. However, Shell has informed its customers that the supply may
not be sufficient to last until Monday (Dec 8) when the next delivery is
due.\
opisnet.com 4:02 pm Dec 4, 2003-12-04 16:02:21 EST

**Colonial Pipeline Has Space for Gasoline\
**Colonial Pipeline has told shippers that it now has space available
for shipments of gasoline; Colonial had restricted shipping orders on
the line. Allocations for the current cycle remain in effect and
restrictions for the next cycle remain in effect but will be reviewed.\
Reuters 10:56 Dec 5, 2003

**Natural Gas**

**TransCanada Restrictions Remain Following System Break**\
The restrictions on pipeline flows imposed by TransCanada Pipeline Ltd.
on a section of its mainline system in Alberta remain in effect. Some
volumes have been re-routed and some producers have been restricted and
have been forced to shut-in some production. A total of approximately
475 MM cf/day has been affected. *(See story in Energy Assurance Daily
Dec 4, 2003)* The reduced flow coupled with the report of a larger
withdrawal of gas from storage pushed prices up in Canada by 14% on
Thursday.\
Bloomberg 10:56 Dec 5, 2003

**ANR Pipeline Shuts Indiana Interconnect\
**ANR is not accepting nominations at the French Lick interconnect with
the Texas Eastern Transmission system because of measurement problems at
the meter station in French Lick, Indiana.\
Bloomberg 10:56 Dec 5, 2003.

**Other News**

**Proposed New Rules for Power Plants\
**The Bush administration on Thursday proposed rules that would create
new targets for industry to reduce air pollution by capping emissions of
sulfur dioxide and nitrogen oxide at power plants. The plan would allow
power plant operators to purchase credits from cleaner plants so long as
the overall targets for the industry were met. The plan is similar to
the "Clean Skies" legislation proposed by the President earlier but
which has been stalled in Congress. This proposal is an effort to speed
the process by employing a regulatory approach in place of the stalled
legislative effort. The rules would apply to 30 northwestern and
midwestern states with the most severe pollution problems.

Washington Post Dec 5, 2003

# Blackout Report Shows Need For Mandatory Grid Rules

A report released last month by an international team investigating this
summer\'s unprecedented North American blackout made obvious the need
for mandatory transmission operating rules, the head of New York\'s grid
operator said Friday. The interim report from a U.S.-Canadian task force
report also highlighted the need for better communication between
neighboring power line operators and for guidelines on reacting to
abnormal conditions in another areas, William Museler, chief executive
of the New York Independent System Operator said. He spoke at the second
of three public meetings intended to gather feedback on the blackout
report and suggestions for improving the continent\'s electric system.
The investigators said last month that the Aug. 14 blackout, which
affected 50 million people in eight states and parts of Canada, was
preventable and caused by communication and equipment breakdowns and
operating procedure violations at Ohio utility FirstEnergy Corp. (FE)
and the Midwest Independent Transmission System Operator. \"The
\'fixes\' for these reliability failures must concentrate primarily on
these root causes: the rules, the training and the obligation of the
personnel and companies involved to follow those rules,\" Museler said.
The task force held a sparsely attended meeting in Cleveland on
Wednesday and will hold another one in Toronto on Monday. It plans to
issue a final report, with recommendations for preventing future
blackouts early next year.

<http://online.wsj.com/article/0,,BT_CO_20031205_001744,00.html>

**LNG Study Is Being Misused, Says Its Author\
**A widely circulated report commissioned by the U.S. Department of
Energy in the wake of the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001 that
examined the question of whether it was safe to allow
liquefied-natural-gas (LNG) tankers to continue to deliver LNG in the
Boston area has been widely misused by those seeking to gain approval
for new LNG facilities in other locations, the author of the report
says. The report, was prepared in two days by Quest Consultants of
Norman, Okla., concluded that the largest possible fire that could
result from a rupture of a tanker wouldn\'t endanger area residents. But
Quest contends its calculations of the potential danger from a LNG
tanker disaster apply only to Boston Harbor and \"should not be applied
to other locations.\" John Cornwell, the principal author of the report,
says his calculations weren\'t intended to be a definitive examination
of LNG tanker safety. \"I think people should take a hard look at all of
this,\" he says. The DOE supports Quest\'s calculations as "appropriate
and accurate in the context of Boston Harbor\" and has ordered a
re-examination of the data. The controversy also could have a
significant effect on which proposed terminals end up being built.
Industry analysts say mounting safety concerns could give a boost to
proposals to build terminals in the Gulf of Mexico on offshore
platforms, such as
[ChevronTexaco](http://online.wsj.com/mds/companyresearch-quote.cgi?route=BOEH&template=company-research&ambiguous-purchase-template=company-research-symbol-ambiguity&profile-name=Portfolio1&profile-version=3.0&profile-type=Portfolio&profile-format-action=incl )
Corp.\'s Port Pelican project.\
The *Wall Street Journal*, Dec 12. 2003

**Energy Prices**

+-------------------------------+-----------+-----------+------------+
|                               | **Latest  | **Week    | **Year     |
|                               | (1        | Ago**     | Ago**      |
|                               | 2/4/03)** |           |            |
+-------------------------------+-----------+-----------+------------+
| **CRUDE OIL**                 | 31.24     | 30.33     | 26.73      |
|                               |           |           |            |
| **West Texas Intermediate     |           |           |            |
| US**                          |           |           |            |
|                               |           |           |            |
| \$/Barrel                     |           |           |            |
+-------------------------------+-----------+-----------+------------+
| **NATURAL GAS**               | 5.70      | 4.86      | 4.26       |
|                               |           |           |            |
| **Henry Hub**                 |           |           |            |
|                               |           |           |            |
| \$/Million Btu                |           |           |            |
+-------------------------------+-----------+-----------+------------+

> Source: Reuters, Wall Street Journal

**This Week in Petroleum** from the Energy Information Administration
(EIA)

[*http://tonto.eia.doe.gov/oog/info/twip/twip.asp*](http://tonto.eia.doe.gov/oog/info/twip/twip.asp)

Updated on Wednesdays

**Weekly Petroleum Status Report** from EIA**\
**[*http://www.eia.doe.gov/oil_gas/petroleum/data_publications/weekly_petroleum_status_report/wpsr.html*](http://www.eia.doe.gov/oil_gas/petroleum/data_publications/weekly_petroleum_status_report/wpsr.html)

Updated after 1:00 pm (Eastern time) on Wednesdays

**Natural Gas Weekly Update** from EIA

[*http://tonto.eia.doe.gov/oog/info/ngw/ngupdate.asp*](http://tonto.eia.doe.gov/oog/info/ngw/ngupdate.asp)

Updated after 2:00 pm (Eastern time) on Thursdays