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

**Office of Electricity and\
Energy Assurance**

**ENERGY ASSURANCE DAILY**

**March 9, 2005**

**Electricity**

# Northeast Storm Cuts Power to 85,000

A late winter storm with fierce winds hit the northeast Tuesday. Winds
of 50 miles per hour forced the closure of Logan International Airport
and disrupted power to as many as 85,000 customers of Massachusetts
Electric. The company reported that as of 4:30 Wednesday morning power
had been restored to all but some 4,000 customers.

<http://www.cnn.com/2005/WEATHER/03/09/winter.storm.ap/index.html>

# 

# Storms Cut Power to Thousands in North Carolina

A series of thunderstorms carrying strong winds with gusts of as much as
70 miles per hour struck North Carolina on Tuesday. The powerful storms
damaged buildings, downed trees, and resulted in wide-spread power
outages affecting tens of thousands of customers. At the peak of the
storm (around the morning rush hour) more than 34,000 Duke Power
customers were without power . Power had been restored to all but
approximately 7,500 by Tuesday afternoon.

<http://www.myrtlebeachonline.com/mld/myrtlebeachonline/news/local/11087553.htm>

<http://www.heraldonline.com/local/story/4664529p-4323014c.html>

<http://www.newbernsj.com/SiteProcessor.cfm?Template=/GlobalTemplates/Details.cfm&StoryID=20337&Section=Local>

**Big Brown Unit1 Expected Back March 10**

TXU Corp. expects to restart the 570-megawatt coal-fired unit 1 at the
Big Brown generation facility on March 10 following repairs.

Reuters 13:36, March 9, 2005.

**River Bend Returns to Full Power**

Entergy Corp.\'s 978 MW River Bend nuclear generating station returned
to full power by early Wednesday. The company had reduced output to
about 75 percent of capacity Tuesday to perform a control rod pattern
adjustment. River Bend is located about 24 miles north-northwest of
Baton Rouge.

Reuters 7:24, March 9, 2005.

**San Onofre Unit 2 Ramps Up to 78 Percent of Capacity**

Edison International\'s 1,070 MW unit 2 at the San Onofre nuclear
generating station ramped up to 78 percent of capacity by early
Wednesday. The unit is exiting an outage that began on February 15 so
that a valve in the cooling water system could be repaired. The plant is
located approximately 60 miles north of San Diego, California.

Reuters 7:29, March 9, 2005.

**Sempra's 324 MW Gas-fired Elk Hills Facility in California Shut March
8**

Reuters 14:20, March 9, 2005

**AES's 493 MW Gas-fired Unit 7 at its Redondo facility in California
Shut March 9.**

Reuters 14:20, March 9, 2005

**Petroleum**

**ExxonMobil Baton Rouge Refinery Recovering From Power Failure**

Exxon Mobil is in the process of restoring operations at its 494,000
barrel per day refinery in Baton Rouge, Louisiana following a power
outage that occurred early Wednesday. According to sources the power
failure temporarily shut down most of the units at the facility.

Reuters, 11:32, March 9, 2005.

**US Gasoline Futures Hit All-Time High**

U.S. gasoline futures rose to a new record on the New York Mercantila
Exchange. The power outage at the ExxonMobil Baton Rouge refinery
contributed to the increase, gasoline for April delivery hit \$1.5550 a
gallon, the highest level for the near month delivery since gasoline
futures trading began on the NYMEX in December 1984.

Reuters 12:25, March 9, 2005.

**Shell Will Delays Maintenance for Mars and Auger**

On Wednesday Shell Oil announced that it will delay the planned
maintenance at the Mars and Auger platforms in the Gulf of Mexico. The
repairs were originally scheduled to begin in mid-March, but will be
delayed until mid-April or even late-May due to water conditions that
would adversely affect the work.

Reuters 13:58, March 9, 2005.

**Natural Gas**

**Tennessee Gas Pipeline Declares Force Majeure**

On Tuesday after discovering a leak, El Paso Corp's. Tennessee Gas
Pipeline Co. declared force majeure for the southwest segment of its
Bluewater pipeline system in the Gulf of Mexico. The company stated on
its Web site that an inspection and damage assessment would be carried
out by divers. On Wednesday, the company indicated that the source of
the leak had been isolated and that the force majeure remains in effect
only for the Meter 011076 (East Cameron 254B).

Reuters, 15:34. March 8, 2005.

[*http://tebb.epenergy.com/ebb/ebbmain.asp?sPipelineCode=TGP*](http://tebb.epenergy.com/ebb/ebbmain.asp?sPipelineCode=TGP)

**Tennessee Gas Pipeline Holds Open Season for Carthage Lateral
Expansion Project**

Tennessee Gas Pipeline Company, a subsidiary of El Paso Corporation ,
announced on Tuesday a non-binding open season for its Line 100/Carthage
Lateral Expansion project. Both The Carthage Lateral and Line 100 in
Texas and northern Louisiana are operating at maximum capacity. The
proposed expansions are designed to serve the growing market in in the
area. The final scope of the projects will depend on the response to the
open season. El Paso anticipates the expansions to be in service in the
second quarter of 2006.

Source: El Paso, March 8, 2005.

<http://www.elpaso.com/press/newsquery.asp?sID=4360>

**Other News**

Nothing to Report

**Energy Prices**

+-------------------------------+-----------+-----------+------------+
|                               | **Latest  | **Week    | **Year     |
|                               | (03       | Ago**     | Ago**      |
|                               | /09/05)** |           |            |
+-------------------------------+-----------+-----------+------------+
| **CRUDE OIL**                 | 54.75     | 53.00     | 36.21      |
|                               |           |           |            |
| **West Texas Intermediate     |           |           |            |
| US**                          |           |           |            |
|                               |           |           |            |
| \$/Barrel                     |           |           |            |
+-------------------------------+-----------+-----------+------------+
| **NATURAL GAS**               | 6.99      | 6.61      | 5.33       |
|                               |           |           |            |
| **Henry Hub**                 |           |           |            |
|                               |           |           |            |
| \$/Million Btu                |           |           |            |
+-------------------------------+-----------+-----------+------------+

> Source: Reuters

**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 1:00pm (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

**ENSEC threat awareness blog site** from Energy Assurance

[*http://ensec.blogspot.com*](http://ensec.blogspot.com/)