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

**Office of Energy Assurance**

**ENERGY ASSURANCE DAILY**

**December 27, 2004**

**Major Development**

**Winter Storms Update:**

As reported in EAD on December 23, a fierce winter storm hit the Midwest
two days before Christmas and knocked out power to approximately 350,000
people primarily in Ohio and nearby areas. The storm was the most
damaging and widespread of several weather-related problems that
resulted in scattered but at times extensive power outages stretching
from the Gulf Coast to New England. What follows are representative
articles with links to stories on the clean up efforts and the lingering
problems following the storm in the Midwest and on the major power
outages that occurred elsewhere through Sunday December 26, 2004.

# Ohio and the Midwest --

# Bitter Cold Now, Warm Soon 

About 275,000 Ohio homes and businesses remained without power on
Christmas Day two days after the storm hit, and frigid temperatures were
forecast statewide for Christmas Day.

More than half of the homes without electricity were in Columbus.

American Electric Power Co. reported Friday that ice-covered tree
branches were still falling onto power lines in Columbus.

Some customers in Chillicothe and south central Ohio might not get
electricity until Monday.

<http://news.enquirer.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20041225/NEWS01/412250353/1056>

# AEP Says Some Will Wait Two More Days Officials: 

NEWARK, Ohio December 27, 2004 \-- Day five of Newark\'s holiday
blackout began with some bad news. American Electric Power has announced
today it would likely take three full days longer than originally
reported to restore power to Newark-area residents in the wake of
Thursday\'s ice storm. AEP originally hoped to have power restored to 90
percent of its area customers by Sunday evening, but at 9:30 p.m.
Sunday, the company changed that estimate to midnight Wednesday. AEP
also said full statewide power restoration is expected by Saturday. As
of 9:30 p.m. Sunday, there were 20,958 Newark-area AEP customers without
power.

<http://www.newarkadvocate.com/news/stories/20041227/localnews/1793496.html>

<http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/nationworld/bal-te.storm25dec25,0,4416449.story?coll=bal-nationworld-headlines>

<http://www.mansfieldnewsjournal.com/news/stories/20041226/localnews/1789349.html>

[http://www.marketwatch.com/news/yhoo/story.asp?source=blq/yhoo&siteid=yhoo&dist=yhoo&guid=%7B5B438071%2DAD16%2D431C%2DBBF4%2DE99DDAF22E0D%7D](http://www.marketwatch.com/news/yhoo/story.asp?source=blq/yhoo&siteid=yhoo&dist=yhoo&guid={5B438071-AD16-431C-BBF4-E99DDAF22E0D})

# North Carolina \--

# Ice Outages Down To 7,000 For North Carolina Electric Cooperatives

Approximately 7,000 customers remain without electric power because of
the ice storm that hit eastern North Carolina Sunday morning. The
outages are primarily located in Cumberland, Hoke, Robeson and Scotland
counties at its peak outages affected approximately 14,000 customers.

Reuters, 20:37, December 26, 2004.

**Texas** --

**Winter Wonderland? \-- Icy Blast Wreaks Havoc On Roads, Power Grids\
**December 26,2004 AEP spokesman Frank Espinoza said that about 25,000
households were without power Christmas Day, with the greatest
concentration in Harlingen, San Benito and Los Fresnos. By Christmas
night, 1,700 households were still without power, but that situation was
expected to be remedied by evening.

<http://www.themonitor.com/SiteProcessor.cfm?Template=/GlobalTemplates/Details.cfm&StoryID=4901&Section=Local>

# Florida -- 

# 100,000 Without Power On Sunday

<http://www.heraldtribune.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20041227/APN/412270546>

<http://www.wftv.com/news/4025440/detail.html>

# Northeast --

# Snow Storm Socks N.E. Region

There were scattered power outages across the region, with Cape Cod, the
South Shore and South Coast the hardest hit, with as many as 15,000
customers without power at about midnight Sunday, NStar spokesman Barry
Salvucci said.

[[http://www.thebostonchannel.com/news/4025410/detail.html]{.underline}](http://www.thebostonchannel.com/news/4025410/detail.html)

<http://www.bangornews.com/news/templates/?a=105663&z=500>

**Electricity\
**

**Fire near Las Cruces disrupts area\'s power\
**A fire of undetermined origin knocked out power in one of El Paso
Electric Co.\'s large transmission lines at about 8:15 p.m. Sunday near
the Organ Mountains, affecting parts of Southern New Mexico and West
Texas, including about 10,000 customers in Las Cruces and fewer in West
El Paso, company spokeswoman Teresa Souza said. Although the line
remained down late Sunday, power was rerouted to all customers by 9:30
p.m. Sunday, she said.

<http://www.borderlandnews.com/stories/borderland/20041227-4700.shtml>

# 

# FPL\'s Turkey Point 4 Reactor Returning to Service

FPL Group Inc.\'s 760-megawatt unit 4 at the Turkey Point nuclear
generating station began returning to service Sunday following a
shutdown on December 25 because of a drain-line leak that has been
repaired. As of Monday morning, the reactor was operating at 59 percent
of capacity and according to a spokeswoman for the utility, the unit
should return to full power sometime later on Monday. The facility is
located about 24 miles south of Miami. The adjacent Unit 3 is operating
at full power.

Reuters, 9:12, December 27, 2004.

# FPL Group\'s St. Lucie Reactor in Florida to Reconnect to Grid

FPL Group Inc.\'s 839-megawatt unit 2 at the St.Lucie 2 nuclear
generating station will reconnect to the grid beginning Monday night
after shutting down on December 25 following a pump motor overheated.
The unit\'s output will be limited to 45 percent of capacity until the
motor is replaced, said Rachel Scott, a spokeswoman for the Juno Beach,
Florida-based company. As of Monday morning, the unit was operating at
10 percent of capacity but was not delivering power to the grid. The
adjacent Unit 1 is operating at full power.

Reuters, 9:42, December 27, 2004.

**Salem 1 nuke back on line, up to 60 pct power**

Public Service Enterprise Group Inc.\'s 1,096-megawatt unit 1 at the
Salem nuclear generating station was reduced to operating at 25 percent
of capacity Sunday to repair a steam-generator pump. The company had no
estimate of the duration of the repair work, but indicated that the
output would likely remain at the current level until the work is
completed. The facility is located in Salem, New Jersey about 40 miles
south of Philadelphia.

Reuters, 7:22, December 23, 2004

**FirstEnergy Ohio Perry nuke exits outage**

FirstEnergy Corp.\'s 1,320-megawatt Perry nuclear generating station
exited an outage and ramped up to 25 percent of capacity by early
Monday. The unit tripped on December 23 following a downshift of both
recirculation pumps from fast to slow speed, according to the report.
The downshift caused the reactor power to drop from 100 percent to 44
percent. The Perry station is located in North Perry in Lake County
about 35 miles northeast of Cleveland, Ohio.

Reuters, 7:42, December 27, 2004.

**TXU sees Texas Martin Lake 1 power unit back soon**

TXU Corp.\'s 750-megawatt unit 1 at the Martin Lake coal-fired power
plant will likely exit an outage December 27-28 after repairing a boiler
tube leak, the company told Texas regulators in a report. The company
shut the unit on Dec 25. The 2,250-megawatt Martin Lake station is
located in Rusk County about 200 miles north of Houston.

Reuters, 8:11, December 27, 2004.

**Texas Genco sees Texas WA Parish 6 power unit back soon**

Texas Genco LLC\'s 650-megawatt coal-fired unit 6 at its WA Parish plant
will likely return to service from Dec. 27-28 following repairs to a
boiler tube leak, the company told Texas regulators in a report. The
3,661 MW WA Parish station is located in Fort Bend County about 40 miles
southwest of Houston, Texas.

Reuters, 8:15, December 27, 2004.

**AES Calif. Alamitos 5 power unit shut**

AES Corp.\'s 480-megawatt gas-fired unit 5 at the Alamitos power plant
shut for unplanned reasons by early Monday, the California Independent
System Operator said in a report. The 1,990 MW Alamitos plant is located
in Los Angeles County about 25 miles south of the city of Los Angeles,
California.

Reuters, 10:43, December 27, 2004.

**OPG's 516 MW unit 7 at the Pickering nuclear generating station in
Ontario shutdown on December 27, 2004.**

Reuters 14:10, December 27, 2004.

**OPG's 285 MW coal-fired Lakeview unit 7 in Ontario shutdown on
December 27, 2004.**

Reuters 14:10, December 27, 2004.

**Petroleum**

# Oil Falls \$2 on Speculation Milder U.S. Weather Will Cut Demand

Crude oil plunged \$2 a barrel in New York amid speculation that
warmer-than-normal temperatures in the eastern half of the U.S. will
limit heating oil needs. Crude oil for February had its biggest decline
since Dec. 1, falling \$2.36 a barrel, or 5.3 percent, to \$41.82 a
barrel at 12:42 p.m. on the New York Mercantile Exchange.

Reuters, 12:58, December 27, 2004.

# Natural Gas

Nothing to report

**Other News**

**Alliance Resource Partners, L.P.: Underground Fire Results in
Temporary Idling of Excel No. 3 Mine**\
Alliance Resource Partners, L.P. on Monday reported that its
wholly-owned MC Mining, LLC subsidiary has temporarily idled the Excel
No. 3 mine located near the city of Pikeville in Pike County, Kentucky,
following a fire in the mine. Mine personnel discovered the fire the
night of December 25, 2004. Firefighting efforts continued until late
morning on December 26, 2004, at which point the mine was evacuated for
safety reasons. All employees are accounted for and no injuries were
incurred during the firefighting efforts or the evacuation. Following
the evacuation, efforts to cut off oxygen to the fire from the surface
initially focused on the temporary capping of the two mine portals that
were completed early Sunday afternoon. Normal operations will remain
suspended until the fire is extinguished, the atmosphere is rendered
inert and the Excel No. 3 mine is recovered.

<http://biz.yahoo.com/bw/041227/275047_2.html>

**Energy Prices**

+-------------------------------+-----------+-----------+------------+
|                               | **Latest  | **Week    | **Year     |
|                               | (12       | Ago**     | Ago**      |
|                               | /27/04)** |           |            |
+-------------------------------+-----------+-----------+------------+
| **CRUDE OIL**                 | 41.26     | 45.57     | 31.71      |
|                               |           |           |            |
| **West Texas Intermediate     |           |           |            |
| US**                          |           |           |            |
|                               |           |           |            |
| \$/Barrel                     |           |           |            |
+-------------------------------+-----------+-----------+------------+
| **NATURAL GAS**               | 6.57      | 7.14      | 6.32       |
|                               |           |           |            |
| **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