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

**Office of Energy Assurance**

**ENERGY ASSURANCE DAILY**

**December 20, 2004**

**Electricity**

**Power Company Investigating Outage Affecting 21,000 in IL/IN**\
Ameren-Illinois Power is investigating why several thousand
Bloomington-Normal area residents were without power Sunday night.
Ameren-Illinois Power spokesman Mike Harrison says the power outages
began around 6:00 p.m. and affected at least 18,000 homes and
businesses. Another 3,000 Corn Belt Energy Corp. customers were also
affected at the peak of he outage. Harrison says service was restored
around 9:15 p.m., and crews are investigating the cause of the outage.
He says the outage appears to be related to problems at one of the
utility\'s substations.
<http://www.14wfie.com/Global/story.asp?S=2713285&nav=3w6oUNEv>
<http://www.pantagraph.com/stories/122004/new_20041220013.shtml>

# Damaged Cable Caused Blackout In SF Marina District 

Utility officials said Saturday that a late night blackout that darkened
sections of San Francisco\'s Marina District and forced the Golden Gate
Bridge to rely on back-up generators for light was caused by a damaged
underground cable. According to PG&E spokesman Jonathan Franks, the
outage was reported at approximately 9 p.m. and lights were not restored
until 11:24 p.m. At its height, the power outage left 13,500 customers
without power in San Francisco\'s Marina District and Russian Hill area.
A spokesman for the Golden Gate Bridge district said that power went out
on the bridge but back-up generators restored power almost instantly and
traffic was not affected.\
<http://www.foxreno.com/news/4008325/detail.html>

# PSEG N.J. Salem 1 Cut to 14 Percent Power 

New Jersey-based energy company Public Service Enterprise Group Inc.
reduced its 1,150-megawatt Salem 1 nuclear unit in New Jersey to 14
percent of capacity by early Monday, the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory
Commission said in its power reactor status report.

On Friday, the unit was operating at 60 percent of capacity after
exiting an outage last week due to an oil spill in the Delaware River.

Reuters, 0707 December 20, 2004

**FPL Fla. Turkey Point 3 Nuke Exits Outage, Up to 60 Percent**

Florida-based energy company FPL Group Inc.\'s 693-megawatt Turkey Point
3 nuclear unit in Florida exited an outage and ramped up to 60 percent
of capacity by early Monday, the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission said
in its power reactor status report. FPL shut the unit on Dec. 14 due to
a brief fire on the high-pressure turbine.\
Reuters, 0711 December 20, 2004

**TXU Texas Monticello 3 Power Unit Back**\
Dallas-based energy company TXU Corp. shut and restarted the
750-megawatt unit 3 at its Monticello coal-fired station in Texas on
Dec. 18 following valve test trip, the company told Texas regulators.

Reuters, 0756 December 20, 2004

**Ontario Brighton Beach Power Plant Shut**\
The 580-megawatt Brighton Beach natural gas-fired power plant in Ontario
shut early Monday, the Ontario Independent Electricity Market Operator
said in a report. On Friday, the unit was available for service. The
Brighton Beach station is located in the town of Windsor across the
Detroit River from Detroit, Michigan

Reuters, 1158 December 20, 2004

**In Ontario, OPG\'s Pickering 4 and 7 Nukes Both Return to Service
Monday**

Unit 4 shut on about Dec. 13, while unit 7 shut on about Sept. 7.

Reuters, 1350 December 20, 2004

**AES's 225 MW Gas-fired Huntington Beach 1 in CA Shutdown December 20**

Reuters, 1411 December 20, 2004

**CDWR's 933 MW Hydyo-powered Hyatt-Therm in CA Shutdown December 20**

Reuters, 1411 December 20, 2004

**USBR's 264 MW Hydro-powered fired Hoover Dam Unit in AZ/NM Shutdown
December 20**

Reuters, 1411 December 20, 2004

**AEP's 528 MW Coal-fired Welsh 2 Unit in TX Shutdown December 19**

Reuters, 1411 December 20, 2004

**Texas Gn's 650 MW Coal-fired WA Parish in TX Shutdown December 18**

Reuters, 1411 December 20, 2004

**Wisconsin-based Firm to Connect State to Illinois with High-voltage
Power Line\
**The first high-voltage power line connecting Wisconsin with a
neighboring state will be up and running next year. For \$6 million,
Pewaukee-based American Transmission Co. will string a 345-kilovolt line
along 15 miles of existing poles, adjacent to one of just three such
lines linking Wisconsin and Illinois. The state Public Service
Commission on Thursday voted to approve the line, stretching between the
Rockford, Ill., area and Janesville/ Beloit.\
[http://powermarketers.netcontentinc.net/newsreader.asp?ppa=8knpp%5EZkqttsprZTnkw11rbfej%5B%21](http://powermarketers.netcontentinc.net/newsreader.asp?ppa=8knpp^ZkqttsprZTnkw11rbfej%5B!)

**Colorado Approves First New Coal-fired Power Plant in State in 23
Years**\
State regulators on Friday approved Colorado\'s first coal-fired power
plant in 23 years. The \$1.35 billion facility is designed to generate
750 megawatts of electricity a day \-- enough for 750,000 customers.\
<http://www.energycentral.com/centers/news/daily/article.cfm?aid=5348226>

**Petroleum**

# Flint Hills Plans Expansion at Minnesota Refinery

Flint Hills Resources LP plans to expand crude oil processing capacity
at its 280,000 barrel per day (bpd) Pine Bend refinery in Rosemount,
Minnesota, by 50,000 bpd in 2007, according to a statement issued by the
company on Monday.\
Reuters, 1415 December 20, 2004

[**Moscow Defies US Court Order on
Yukos**](http://www.energyintel.com/DocumentDetail.asp?document_id=137645)\
Russia\'s Federal Property Fund pledged to proceed as planned with
Sunday\'s auction of Yukos\' core oil production unit, Yuganskneftegas,
in defiance of a US court injunction. But financing for the leading
contender, Russia\'s Gazprom, was thrown into doubt Friday after a
banking consortium suspended its planned loan.\
International Oil Daily, December 20, 2004

**YUKOS Slides Toward Collapse as Unit Sold**\
Russia\'s top oil exporter, YUKOS, slid closer to collapse after it lost
its main production unit to a mystery buyer in a forced auction and its
crude shipments started to slow. YUKOS Chief Executive Stephen Theede
acknowledged on Monday that the \$9.4 billion government sale of its
Yuganskneftegaz operation was an \"irreversible act.\" But he told
reporters in London that YUKOS would not turn over shares in Yugansk
until the buyer, Baikal Finance Group, revealed its identity and
backing. \"In the 1990s, Russian stocks traded at low valuations because
everyone was worried about being robbed by the oligarchs. Now everyone
is worried about being robbed by the government,\" Taylor told Reuters.
YUKOS is an empire with over 130,000 workers in 60 Russian cities whose
livelihoods are now at risk. \"That some 10 percent of Russia\'s (oil)
production should be in unknown hands is clearly untenable,\" said Adam
Landes at Renaissance Capital.\
<http://biz.yahoo.com/rb/041220/yukos_4.html>

**Sabotage Stops Iraq\'s North Oil Exports**\
Saboteurs blew up Iraq\'s northern export pipeline for the second week
in a row on Saturday, halting oil flows to Turkey\'s Ceyhan port, oil
officials said. A bomb that exploded overnight blew off a section of the
twin pipeline near the oil center of Baiji, they said. The pipeline runs
from the Kirkuk oil fields to the IT-1A storage tanks near Baiji, where
oil accumulates before it is pumped further north to Ceyhan. Storage
tanks at IT-1A were full before the attack, but technical problems have
been hampering pumping to Ceyhan, one official said.\
<http://biz.yahoo.com/rb/041218/energy_iraq_sabotage_2.html>

**[Gasoline-Price Spikes Linked To Refiners\' Lower
Inventories](http://us.rd.yahoo.com/finance/industry/news/latestnews/*http://us.rd.yahoo.com/finance/external/wsj/SIG=11vpqp0k7/*http://online.wsj.com/article/0,,SB110350289629204398,00.html?mod=yahoo_hs&ru=yahoo)\
**The Wall Street Journal, December 19, 2004

# Natural Gas

### Northern Natural Gas Calls for System Overrun in MN, IA, WI Again

Due to below zero minimum temperatures in the Zone E/F area (MN, IA, WI)
a SOL day is being called for the gas day of Tuesday December 21. DDVC
Penalties are applicable to the bumped shippers' quantity.
<http://www.northernnaturalgas.com/infopostings/asp/atAGlanceNotices.asp?id_priority=Y&company=179#19325>

**Other News**

**Pennsylvania Congressman Says Terrorists Plan to Attack Seabrook\
**A Pennsylvania congressman who is writing a book about an Iranian plot
to conduct an attack on the United States says a terrorist group in that
country is planning to attack New Hampshire\'s Seabrook nuclear plant.
But state and federal officials are playing down the comments from
Republican Curt Weldon, reported this week in The New York Sun. They say
they know of no specific threat against Seabrook. Weldon, the vice
chairman of the House Armed Services Committee, told The Sun that a
source with high-level Iranian government contacts had told him a
terrorist group in Iran plans to hijack Canadian airliners and crash
them into an American reactor. The target of the operation was only
identified by a source as SEA, leading Weldon to predict it was the
Seabrook reactor in New Hampshire. The source told the congressman that
the attack was first planned for between Nov. 23 and Dec. 3, 2003, but
was postponed to take place after this year\'s presidential election.
Weldon went public with the charge this week, saying he did so after the
CIA and others ignored him.\
<http://www.energycentral.com/centers/news/daily/article.cfm?aid=5347422>

**Energy Prices**

+-------------------------------+-----------+-----------+------------+
|                               | **Latest  | **Week    | **Year     |
|                               | (12       | Ago**     | Ago**      |
|                               | /20/04)** |           |            |
+-------------------------------+-----------+-----------+------------+
| **CRUDE OIL**                 | 45.57     | 41.06     | 32.81      |
|                               |           |           |            |
| **West Texas Intermediate     |           |           |            |
| US**                          |           |           |            |
|                               |           |           |            |
| \$/Barrel                     |           |           |            |
+-------------------------------+-----------+-----------+------------+
| **NATURAL GAS**               | 7.14      | 6.89      | 6.92       |
|                               |           |           |            |
| **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