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

**Office of Energy Assurance**

**ENERGY ASSURANCE DAILY**

###### August 23, 2004

**Electricity**

**Update -- Hurricane Charley Power Restoration Efforts**

**Florida Completing Hurricane Charley Damage Repair; Vast Majority of
Customers Restored to Service**\
In the aftermath of Hurricane Charley, Progress Energy Florida has
restored power to the vast majority of the company\'s customers capable
of receiving service. Since restoration began, crews have ordered and
used supplies in astounding numbers:\
Total wire: 5,838,521 feet (1,106 miles; distance between Orlando and
Chicago)\
Insulators (porcelain support between wire and pole): 43,494\
Distribution poles: 2,285 (17.3 miles laid end to end)\
Transformers (overhead and underground): 5,779\
Splices (used to connect severed lines): 127,184 In addition, 79 of 83
substations have been returned to service and 578 of 700 miles of
transmission line have been replaced.
<http://biz.yahoo.com/prnews/040823/clm034_1.html>

**FPL Continues to Focus Power Restoration Efforts in Areas Most Damaged
by Hurricane Charley**\
Florida Power & Light Company said today that it is continuing power
restoration focusing on areas most damaged by Hurricane Charley. To
date, service is restored to 824,100 of the 874,000 customers throughout
the company\'s service territory affected by the recent, devastating
storm. FPL says it has shifted all available crews to \"ground zero\" on
Florida\'s Southwest coast.
<http://biz.yahoo.com/bw/040822/225036_1.html>

**Calif. Moss Landing Unit 7 Seen Available Tuesday**\
The 755 megawatt Unit 7 at the Moss Landing gas-fired plant in
California is expected to be available if needed on Tuesday, a
spokeswoman for the plant\'s owner, Duke Energy Corp. said on Monday.
The plant had been available but did not run for economic reasons last
week but some problems were uncovered during weekend maintenance work
that needed \"more time to work on,\" prompting operators to notify the
California Independent System Operator that it was no longer available,
Duke Energy said. The California ISO, which controls most of the
state\'s power grid, then added the unit to its outage list which does
not include plants down for purely economic reasons.
<http://biz.yahoo.com/rc/040823/utilities_duke_mosslanding_2.html>

**Hatch 1 Nuclear-Power Plant at Full Power, Company Says** Southern
Co.'s 924 MW Hatch 1 nuclear unit in GA. is up to 100% power. The plant
was powered over the week-end to perform routine scheduled activities.
Bloomberg News, 1139 August 23, 2004

**PPL Reduces Pa. Susquehanna 1 Nuke for Work**\
PPL Corp. reduced power to about 75 percent of capacity at its 1,100
megawatt Susquehanna 1 nuclear unit in Pennsylvania to repair a
feedwater pump, a company spokesman said Monday. The spokesman said the
control valve on the pump was not working properly. After the company
repairs the valve, it will return the unit to full power, he said.
<http://biz.yahoo.com/rc/040823/utiltities_ppl_susquehanna_3.html>

**Exelon's Dresden 2 Nuke Exits Outage, Up to 74 Pct**\
Exelon Corp.'s 800 megawatt Dresden 2 nuclear unit in Illinois exited a
work outage and ramped up to 74 percent of capacity by early Monday, the
Nuclear Regulatory Commission said in its power reactor status report.
On Friday, the unit was operating at 1 percent of capacity as it started
to exit a work outage started on Aug. 16 to repair a cracked footing on
the main generator. One megawatt powers about 1,000 homes, according to
the national average.
<http://biz.yahoo.com/rc/040823/utilities_exelon_dresden_1.html>

**Kansas Wolf Creek Nuke Shut**\
The operator of the 1,235 megawatt Wolf Creek nuclear power plant in
Kansas expects the reactor to return to service by about the middle of
the week, following a reactor trip on Aug. 22 during a surveillance
test, a spokeswoman for the plant said Monday. Following the reactor
trip, the operator said the steam dump valves, which function to remove
excess heat as the secondary systems shutdown, did not initially operate
as expected, leaving the steam generator atmospheric relief valves to
control reactor coolant pressure for about three minutes. In the report,
the company said it was investigating the cause of the reactor trip and
the problem with the steam dump valves. The spokeswoman said the unit
likely shut due to a problem with a switch.
<http://biz.yahoo.com/rc/040823/utilities_greatplains_wolfcreek_4.html>

**Critical Middletown-to-Norwalk, Conn., Power Line is Tangled in
Turmoil**

Connecticut State officials are expected to decide Monday if they will
resume hearings on a major Middletown-to-Norwalk transmission line
project while power industry officials investigate the feasibility of
building parts of the line underground. The Connecticut Siting Council
halted the hearings earlier this week after power grid operator ISO New
England said putting 24 miles of the line underground would be
difficult, and would add \$250 million to the estimated \$604 million
cost of the line.
<http://www.energycentral.com/centers/news/daily/article.cfm?aid=5066749>

**CPUC Approves Jefferson Martin Transmission Line**

The California Public Utilities Commission unanimously approved Pacific
Gas & Electric\'s Jefferson-Martin high voltage transmission project.
The new 27-mile, 230 kV line promises to provide relief to San Francisco
Peninsula\'s constrained grid by tapping into power south of the
peninsula. It is also expected to speed the closure-if not seal the
fate-of the polluting, circa-1929 Hunters Point power plant, which is an
anathema to those living in its shadow.
<http://www.energycentral.com/centers/news/daily/article.cfm?aid=5067158>

**Petroleum**

**Exxon Mobil Says Baytown Plant Normal After Upset**\
Exxon Mobil Corp. said on Monday its 557,000 barrel-per-day Baytown,
Texas, refinery was operating normally after an upset at the plant\'s
fluid catalytic cracker over the weekend. "Everything is operating
normally,\" said refinery spokeswoman Trisha Thompson. The upset
Saturday in the gasoline-making unit caused wet gas compressors at the
refinery to trip off-line and some flaring, but the unit was
\"stabilized and the compressors restarted as quickly as possible,\"
according to a filing with state regulators.
<http://biz.yahoo.com/rc/040823/energy_exxon_refinery_2.html>

**BP Repairs Leaky FCC Piping at Texas City Refinery**

BP will repair leaky piping in a fluid catalytic cracking unit at its
470,000 barrel-per-day (bpd) Texas City, Texas, refinery after the leak
was discovered over the weekend, according to the Texas Commission for
Environmental Quality. In a filing with the commission, BP reported
flaring from the gasoline-making unit as the piping was isolated for
repairs.

Reuters, 852 August 23, 2004

**Iraq\'s Southern Terminal Loadings Continue at Normal Rates**

Iraq\'s southern crude loadings continued at normal levels Monday with
the resumption of pumping through the 48-inch pipeline after 14 days
offline due to violence in southern Iraq, port agents and an Iraqi oil
official said. Loading at the Persian Gulf Basra oil terminal reached
normal levels Saturday when pumping crude rates hit around 83,000
bbl/hour, an Iraqi oil official said. Now the second pipeline is pumping
on \"full flow,\" two port agents said. The Starlight Jewel and the
Marjan are loading at a combined rate of some 82,000 bbl/hr at the Basra
terminal, while the Kamlesh is waiting to load at the Khor al-Amaya.
Loading at the two terminals had dropped to 36,000 bbl/hour to 40,000
bbl/hour after the Mehdi Army, loyal to provocative Shiite cleric
Moqtada Sadr, threatened and then attacked oil installations run by the
South Oil Co in Basra. The 48-inch pipeline closed and Iraq was only
able to move crude through its 42-inch pipeline from oilfields to
storage.

<http://www.platts.com/Oil/News/2779081.xml?S=n>

# Natural Gas

Nothing to report.

**Other**

**US Warns of Terrorist Attacks Against Oil Workers in Persian Gulf**

The US Department of State has warned that Islamic extremists may be
planning to carry out attacks against Westerners and oil workers in the
Persian Gulf region, the US Department of State said in a public
announcement over the weekend.

<http://www.platts.com/Oil/News/9865608.xml?S=n>

**Truck Leaking Packing Material from a Shipment of Uranium
Tetrafluoride** Arizona Governor Janet Napolitano on Friday, August 20,
called for an investigation of the Department of Energy\'s nuclear waste
shipping procedures after a truck was found to be leaking packing
material from a shipment of uranium tetrafluoride near Flagstaff. A
convoy of trucks was en route from Oak Ridge, TN, to a disposal site in
Nevada along Interstate 40 in northern Arizona on Sunday, August 15 when
the leak occurred. \"This event gives me grave concern that, even though
no radioactive material was released, there appears to be a systemic
weakness in your shipping and packaging procedures,\" Napolitano wrote
in a letter to Department of Energy Secretary Spencer Abraham.\
[http://www.azcentral.com/arizonarepublic/local/articles/0821
nukeshipping21.html](http://www.azcentral.com/arizonarepublic/local/articles/0821nukeshipping21.html)

**Energy Prices**

+-------------------------------+-----------+-----------+------------+
|                               | **Latest  | **Week    | **Year     |
|                               | (8        | Ago**     | Ago**      |
|                               | /23/04)** |           |            |
+-------------------------------+-----------+-----------+------------+
| **CRUDE OIL**                 | 46.00     | 46.02     | 31.64      |
|                               |           |           |            |
| **West Texas Intermediate     |           |           |            |
| US**                          |           |           |            |
|                               |           |           |            |
| \$/Barrel                     |           |           |            |
+-------------------------------+-----------+-----------+------------+
| **NATURAL GAS**               | 5.34      | 5.34      | 5.24       |
|                               |           |           |            |
| **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