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

**Office of Energy Assurance**

**ENERGY ASSURANCE DAILY**

**December 29, 2004**

**Highlights / Major Developments**

# AEP connects power but limbs still falling Power is back on in most of Central Ohio, American Electric Power Company Inc. said Wednesday morning. Around 20,009 AEP (NYSE: AEP) customers remained without electricity as of 10 a.m. Wednesday morning, the Columbus-based energy company said. Some 9,805 of those outages are in eastern Columbus and the surrounding suburbs, with the rest in the Newark area. AEP expects to restore power to most areas of Newark by midnight Wednesday. Ice storms on Dec. 23 knocked out power for 149,216 Central Ohio residents. In some areas, such as southwest Columbus, additional residents lost power on Tuesday. More tree limbs fell as the ice covering them melted, knocking out power. http://www.bizjournals.com/columbus/stories/2004/12/27/daily18.html

**Electricity**

**SDGE Has Over 82,000 Customers Out of Power\
**San Diego Gas & Electric says that restoration times may be delayed
because the utility is still in storm mode. See the links below for a
map showing location and magnitude of each outage or see the list link
for detailed information on each outage.\
<http://pow.sdge.com/publicOutageWeb/servlet/OutageMap>\
<http://outages.sdge.com/publicOutageWeb/servlet/OutageList>\
**\
SCE Has Over 55, 000 Customers Out of Power**

On Tuesday, in Southern California Edison\'s service area \--which
covers parts of 11 counties \-- 55,000 customers lost power, mostly in
Ventura and Santa Barbara counties, said Marlon Walker, an Edison
spokesman. By the time the sun set on Tuesday, about 26,000 people in
Edison's coverage area were without electricity, with about half living
in Los Angeles County. Luckily, very few were in the desert. Only 6,000
customers in Riverside and San Bernardino counties were left without
power.\
<http://www.thedesertsun.com/news/stories2004/local/20041229012509.shtml>\
<http://www.whittierdailynews.com/Stories/0,1413,207~12026~2623452,00.html>\
<http://www.click2houston.com/weather/4033586/detail.html>

**FPL Shuts 693 MW Turkey Point 3 Nuke Unit Tuesday**

In Florida, FPL shut its Turkey Point 3 nuke on Dec. 28 due

to a generator exciter cooling water leak. A spokeswoman at FPL

said the company was investigating the problem and she could

not provide an estimated time for a return to service.

Reuters, 1331 December 29, 2004

# SCE's 281 MW Big Creek Hydro-powered Unit in CA Shuts Down

Reuters, 1402 December 29, 2004

# DTE's 235 MW La Paloma Gas-fired Unit in CA Shuts Down

Reuters, 1402 December 29, 2004

# TXU's 565 MW Monticello Coal-fired Unit 2 in TX Restarts 

Reuters, 1402 December 29, 2004

# 

# TXU's 750 MW Martin Lake Coal-fired Unit 1 in TX Restarts 

Reuters, 1402 December 29, 2004

# 

# Texas Gen's 650 MW WA Parish Coal-fired Unit 6 in TX Restarts 

Reuters, 1402 December 29, 2004

**Ontario Brighton Beach Power Plant Shut**

The 580-megawatt Brighton Beach natural gas-fired power plant in Ontario
shut by early Wednesday, the Ontario Independent Electricity Market
Operator said in a report. On Tuesday, the unit was available for
service.

Reuters, 0849 December 29, 2004

**Conn. Utilities Propose \$840M-\$990M Power Line**

Connecticut Light & Power (CL&P) and United Illuminating estimated it
would cost \$840 million to \$990 million to build a proposed power
transmission line in Connecticut from Middletown to Norwalk. The
electric utilities made their estimate in a filing Tuesday with the
Connecticut Siting Council, which must approve the project.

Reuters, 1401 December 29, 2004

# 

# A Day of Truth is Coming for a Troubled Nuclear Power Plant The company that owns the Hope Creek nuclear power plant in Salem County is hoping to obtain at a Jan. 5 meeting the approval of federal regulators to restart the plant, which has been shut down since an Oct. 10 steam leak. While Public Service Energy Group has been working for more than two months to fix the problems that caused the leak, activists are hoping a second problem will keep the plant from being restarted immediately. Newark-based PSEG does not need formal permission from the federal Nuclear Regulatory Commission to restart the Hope Creek plant, but agreed after the October mishap not to restart it until after a meeting with the commission.

<http://www.fortwayne.com/mld/journalgazette/business/10515185.htm>

**Petroleum**

# 

# US Gasoline Production Hits Record 9.2 Million bpd-EIA

U.S. gasoline production hit a record 9.2 million barrels per day last
week as refiners boosted output, the federal Energy Information
Administration said on Wednesday. The rise helped push gasoline stocks
up 900,000 bpd to 212.3 million barrels, the EIA said.

Reuters, 1109 December 29, 2004

# 

# 

# 

# 

# Oil jumps 4 Percent on Riyadh Car Bombs, US Stockdraw

Oil prices rose for a second day on Wednesday after twin car bombs
exploded in Saudi Arabia\'s capital and the U.S. government reported
another decline in lean winter heating fuel stocks. U.S. light crude oil
futures settled up \$1.87, or 4.47 percent, at \$43.64 a barrel on the
New York Mercantile Exchange. In London, Brent crude fell 90 cents to
\$39.40, catching up with heavy U.S. losses earlier this week when the
International Petroleum Exchange was closed. In Saudi Arabia, militants
tried to storm two buildings in Riyadh on Wednesday, but were blocked
and detonated their cars outside the gates, a security source said.
Earlier, prices rose after the U.S. Energy Information Administration
said stocks of distillate fuel, including heating oil and diesel fuel,
dropped by 800,000 barrels last week to 119.1 million barrels.

Reuters, 1525 December 29, 2004

# Iraq South Oil Exports Resume, North Still Stopped

Iraq has resumed exporting crude oil from its southern Basra terminal
after bad weather stopped loadings for a day, shipping data showed on
Wednesday. Loadings resumed at 1.4 million barrels per day (bpd) late on
Tuesday. But in the north, exports remained at a standstill following
sabotage attacks 11 days ago, officials said, adding that they expected
no flows for another three days.

Reuters, 0614 December 29, 2004

# Natural Gas

**Fire Shuts Down Synfuels Plant that Feeds Gas to Northern Border**\
The Great Plains Synfuels plant near Beulah, ND, which is owned by the
Dakota Gasification Co., has been shut down for up to seven days
following a fire that damaged three boilers at the facility. Natural Gas
Intelligence, December 28, 2004

[http://powermarketers.netcontentinc.net/newsreader.asp?ppa=8kowu%5DZkrunmrmSUnjw11rbfej%5B%21](http://powermarketers.netcontentinc.net/newsreader.asp?ppa=8kowu%5DZkrunmrmSUnjw11rbfej%5B!)

Nothing to report

**Other News**

**Small Fire Shuts Down Synfuel Plant in North Dakota Plant**\
An early morning fire Monday put the nation\'s only synthetic fuels
plant out of the gas-making business for the remainder of the week. The
fire at Dakota Gasification Co. near Beulah damaged two of the three
steam boilers and production can\'t resume without two back up and
running. Each day costs \$440,000 in lost revenue, based on the
company\'s most recent revenue statement. The weeklong stoppage comes in
the same calendar year the company completely shut down the plant for
the first time in its 20-year history to give it a front-to-back
tune-up. That tune-up cost nearly \$40 million in lost revenue, when the
black plant outage unexpectedly lasted weeks longer than planned. No one
was injured in Monday\'s fire, which broke out about 4 a.m. and was
suppressed by the plant\'s own fire team. DGC workers will remain at the
plant during the temporary shutdown.\
<http://www.bismarcktribune.com/articles/2004/12/28/news/local/nws04.txt>

**Energy Prices**

+-------------------------------+-----------+-----------+------------+
|                               | **Latest  | **Week    | **Year     |
|                               | (12       | Ago**     | Ago**      |
|                               | /29/04)** |           |            |
+-------------------------------+-----------+-----------+------------+
| **CRUDE OIL**                 | 43.69     | 44.05     | 31.51      |
|                               |           |           |            |
| **West Texas Intermediate     |           |           |            |
| US**                          |           |           |            |
|                               |           |           |            |
| \$/Barrel                     |           |           |            |
+-------------------------------+-----------+-----------+------------+
| **NATURAL GAS**               | 6.18      | 7.05      | 5.46       |
|                               |           |           |            |
| **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