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By Tom Kleckner Stepping in where others have failed, San Diego’s Sempra Energy on Monday announced a $9.45 billion cash deal to acquire bankrupt Energy Future Holdings and its 80% interest in Texas utility Oncor. Sempra’s move short-circuited a looming battle between Berkshire Hathaway Energy and hedge fund Elliott Management,...

The Public Utility Commission of Texas asked ERCOT and SPP on Thursday to coordinate a joint study on Rayburn Country Electric Cooperative’s proposed transfer of most of its existing SPP transmission facilities and load into ERCOT (Docket 47342). The East Texas co-op is an SPP member, but only about 150...

By Rich Heidorn Jr. Calpine announced Friday it has agreed to be acquired by Energy Capital Partners and other investors for $5.6 billion in cash, or $15.25/share, a 51% premium to Calpine’s share price when news of a potential deal became public in May, and a 13% bump from Thursday’s...

By Tom Kleckner AUSTIN, Texas — Industry experts and ERCOT stakeholders and staff jammed the Texas Public Utility Commission’s hearing room Friday for the first of several discussions on scarcity pricing and other price-formation issues in the grid operator’s energy-only market. The PUC workshop was called to discuss a report...

Rising natural gas prices will likely mean an end to ERCOT’s all-time low energy prices, according to the Independent Market Monitor’s midyear review of the Texas grid operator’s market. IMM Director Beth Garza | © RTO Insider IMM Director Beth Garza told the ERCOT Board of Directors last week that...

By Rich Heidorn Jr. Berkshire Hathaway Energy reported a $38 million increase in earnings for the second quarter over a year earlier, largely because of improved performance of BHE Renewables. The renewable unit saw net income increase $39 million due primarily to higher generation at the Solar Star projects, which...

By Tom Kleckner CenterPoint Energy and OGE Energy both reported positive earnings Thursday, but company officials spent much of their time during conference calls with analysts discussing their gas-gathering and processing joint venture, Enable Midstream. CenterPoint executives had promised an update during its call on efforts to sell or spin...

By Tom Kleckner AUSTIN, Texas — ERCOT’s energy-only market may not be broken, but stakeholders will discuss some fine-tuning at a Public Utility Commission workshop this week. Market participants have complained about ERCOT’s use of reliability unit commitments, reliability-must-run contracts and other out-of-market actions. The Independent Market Monitor’s most recent...

By Tom Kleckner With its merchant nuclear power plants all but part of history, Entergy reported second-quarter earnings Wednesday that almost doubled investor expectations. The New Orleans-based company said second-quarter profits were $409.9 million ($2.27/share), compared with $567.3 million ($3.11/share) a year ago. A Zacks Investment Research survey of Wall...

AUSTIN, Texas — ERCOT stakeholders last week tabled a proposal to eliminate the reduction of congestion revenue rights (CRR) payments — “deration,” in the ERCOT vernacular — after the measure failed to pass the Technical Advisory Committee. The nodal protocol revision request (NPRR821) would reverse the deration-settlement mechanism, which was...