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

**Office of Electricity Delivery and\
Energy Reliability**

**ENERGY ASSURANCE DAILY**

**September 20, 2005**

## Highlights/Major Developments

**Update: Hurricane Katrina**

For the latest Hurricane Katrina situation report from the Office of
Electricity Delivery and Energy Reliability (OE) of the U.S. Department
of Energy, please click on the following link:
[http://www.oe.netl.doe.gov](http://www.oe.netl.doe.gov/)

For the latest statistics on shut-in oil and gas production in the Gulf
of Mexico, please click on the following link:
[*http://www.mms.gov/*](http://www.mms.gov/)

**Hurricane Rita**

**Update: As Tropical Storm Rita Strengthens to Hurricane Rita,
Evacuation of Personnel from Gulf Accelerates**

More companies began evacuating personnel as others continued their
evacuation personnel from the offshore and shut-in production in the
Gulf of Mexico as tropical storm Rita became a category 2 hurricane and
began moving toward the Texas Gulf Coast. Latest projections indicate
probable landfall approximately 100 miles southwest of Houston. In
addition to the companies that were reported evacuating on September 19,
Anadarko, Dominion Resources, Kerr McGee, Exxon Mobil, Apache, and
Marathon announced that evacuations of at least some non-essential
personnel were planned or underway. In addition, BP announced that all
its personnel were being evacuated.

Reuters 14:45, September 20, 2005.

Reuters 12:18, September 20, 2005.

Reuters 14:38, September 20, 2005.

Reuters 11:47, September 20, 2005.

Reuters 14:05, September 20, 2005.

Reuters 11:59, September 20, 2005.

Reuters 18:29, September 19, 2005.

Bloomberg 9:35, September 20, 2005

Bloomberg 12:10, September 20, 2005

### Less than 19,000 FPL Customers Remain Without Power from Hurricane Rita

FPL announced that it had restored power to approximately 80,000
customers of the nearly 100,000 customers that lost power as hurricane
Rita moved across Florida.

Reuters 16:21, September 20, 2005.

######## Electricity

######## Thunderstorms Leave Over 52,000 Without Power in IL, IN, OH September 19

Thunderstorms swept through Illinois, Indiana and Ohio on Monday leaving
over 52,000 customers without power. In Illinois, 21,000 Ameren
customers were without power, and crews were working through the night
to restore power. In Indiana, 7,600 Cynergy customers, and 15,000
Indianapolis Power and Light customers were without power at the height
of the storm; by Tuesday morning that number had been reduced to 3,600.
In Ohio, an additional 9,000 Cynergy customers were without power.

<http://www.belleville.com/mld/belleville/news/12690534.htm>

<http://www.wthr.com/Global/story.asp?S=3871436>

<http://www.channelcincinnati.com/news/4994891/detail.html?rss=cin&psp=news>

### Electrical Malfunction Prompts UN Evacuation September 19

A power failure, caused by an electrical malfunction in a switch
generating unit in the UN secretariat building, led UN security to order
all staff except essential personnel and those supporting operations of
the General Assembly to evacuate. The outage affected computers and
phone service. It was estimated that the repairs would take most of the
night.

<http://www.newsday.com/news/nationworld/wire/sns-ap-un-power-failure,0,3984387.story?coll=sns-ap-nationworld-headlines>

<http://news.inq7.net/common/print.php?index=3&story_id=50765&site_id=22>

### PPM Energy to Build 300 MW of Wind Power During 2006

PPM Energy, a U.S. subsidiary of Scottish Power, has signed an agreement
with GE Energy to purchase 300 MW of wind turbines. The units will be
used in several projects to be constructed during 2006.

Source: Wind Energy Week 9/19/05

<http://pro.energycentral.com/professional/news/power/news_article.cfm?id=5960759>

**Entergy to Sell Unneeded Power -- for Now**

The Texas Public Utility Commission is to vote on allowing utilities in
southeastern Texas to purchase some of what at the present is unneeded
power generated by Entergy New Orleans and Entergy Gulf. If approved,
Entergy would be able to sell much of what would otherwise be surplus
power because of the widespread and extensive damage from hurricane
Katrina. The utilities in Texas would benefit from the lower fuel costs
associated with the Entergy units. When needed, Entergy could regain the
power on a 10 day notice.

Source: The Beaumont Enterprise

<http://www.energycentral.com/centers/news/daily/article.cfm?aid=5961090>

**Mirant to Partially Reopen its Potomac River Plant**

Mirant announced that it will reopen a unit its Potomac River facility
that had been shut-down since August 24 because of concerns about
pollution. On September 21, the company will restart the 88 MW unit 1 at
the facility and operate for a maximum of 16 hours per day divided
approximately in half operating at full power for eight hours and eight
hours at 50 percent of capacity. In addition, the company is developing
a solution that will allow for the restart of all five units at the
facility.

Reuters 14:30, September 20, 2005.

Bloomberg 13:53, September 20, 2005.

**Unit 2 at TXU's Big Brown Shut to Repair Tube Leak**

The 560 MW unit 2 at the Big Brown coal-fired power plant of TXU was
shut on September 19 to repair a leaking boiler tube.

Reuters 8:33, September 20, 2005.

### Reliant's 220 MW Gas-fired Etiwanda Facility in California Shut September 20

Reuters 15:31, September 20, 2005.

**Complete's 241 MW Gas-fired Unit 4 at its La Paloma Power Plant in
California Shut September 20**

Reuters 15:31, September 20, 2005.

# Update: TVA's Browns Ferry 3 Nuke in Alabama Ramps up to 88 Percent September 19

The unit shut on Sept. 17 during maintenance to repair a moisture level
control valve.

Reuters, 15:01 September 20, 2005

######## Petroleum

**Update -OPEC to Offer Spare Production Capacity**

After one day of talks, OPEC President Sheikh Ahmed said he believed
ministers would back the proposed 2-mil b/d supply offer as opposed to a
proposal to raise the group\'s official 28-mil b/d output ceiling.

<http://www.platts.com/Oil/News/8092674.xml?S=n>

### Update: Chevron Hurricane Katrina Damage Assessment

Chevron has begun shipments from its Pascagoula refinery to its terminal
in Collins, MS and to the Plantation Pipeline. Electrical power has been
restored to the refinery and operations are expected to start up in
mid-October, with full production by mid-November.

In the Gulf of Mexico, Chevron production is at 56% of pre-hurricane
levels, but has begun evacuation of personnel due to the approach of
Hurricane Rita.

<http://biz.yahoo.com/prnews/050919/sfm150.html?.v=11>

Reuters 17:59, September 20, 2005.

<http://pro.energycentral.com/professional/news/gas/news_article.cfm?id=5961190>

For additional information on petroleum, see Highlights/Major
Developments

**Natural Gas**

**Compressor Station problem Forces ANR to Reduce Flow**

The need for unexpected engine maintenance at one of the compressor
stations led the ANR Pipeline Co to reduce flow on its in the Southeast
Area Fuel Segment from Patterson to Eunice stations to 625 million cubic
feet per day while the work is being performed. The reduction will
likely result in curtailment of ANR's interruptible customers.

Bloomberg 12:00, September 19, 2005.

**Northern Natural Gas Pipeline Requests Capacity Increases**

MidAmerican Energy's Northern Natural Gas Pipeline has filed requests
with FERC to increase their storage capacity in Iowa and Kansas.

Natural Gas Intelligence

[http://powermarketers.netcontentinc.net/newsreader.asp?ppa=8kowu%5D%5BeipttnnVTnk%27%40%3E%20bfek%5Cv](http://powermarketers.netcontentinc.net/newsreader.asp?ppa=8kowu%5D%5BeipttnnVTnk'@> bfek\v)

For additional information on natural gas, see Highlights/Major
Developments

########  

######## Other News

Nothing to Report

######## Energy Prices 

+-------------------------------+-----------+-----------+------------+
|                               | **Latest  | **Week    | **Year     |
|                               | (09       | Ago**     | Ago**      |
|                               | /20/05)** |           |            |
+-------------------------------+-----------+-----------+------------+
| **CRUDE OIL**                 | 66.24     | 63.18     | 46.75      |
|                               |           |           |            |
| **West Texas Intermediate     |           |           |            |
| US**                          |           |           |            |
|                               |           |           |            |
| \$/Barrel                     |           |           |            |
+-------------------------------+-----------+-----------+------------+
| **NATURAL GAS**               | 12.76     | 10.71     | 5.27       |
|                               |           |           |            |
| **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/)