Potomac Electric Power

Five days after ice and wind storms knocked out power to 350,000 Baltimore Gas and Electric Co. customers in the metropolitan area, power was completely restored by 3: 30 p.m. yesterday.The problem -- concentrated most in Howard and Carroll counties -- required more than 800 BGE field employees, who worked around the clock. The few outages remaining last night were not related to the storms, said a BGE spokeswoman.As of 7 p.m. yesterday, Potomac Electric Power Co. had restored power to all but 3,500 customers in Montgomery County after Monday's high winds and heavy rains.

Thanks to a nearly six-year cap on residential prices, electricity in Maryland is the one source of energy that costs less today than it did early in the Clinton administration. But tomorrow is the beginning of the end for consumers who cherish carefree hours of watching television, washing dishes or basking in air-conditioned bliss. Somewhere in the 15-story East Tower of Charles Center in downtown Baltimore, brokers for the state's largest utility will be locked in a secure room with a contingent of state regulators, consumer watchdogs and energy consultants.

The Baltimore Gas and Electric Co. and the Potomac Electric Power Co. have tentatively settled on Chesapeake Power Co. as the name for their merged company, according to a internal BGE memorandum.The proposed name takes into account the two utilities' shared geography near the Chesapeake Bay and serves as a generic moniker unlikely to offend either shareholders or regulators in Baltimore or Washington.Last week, BGE and Pepco announced plans for a corporate marriage that would create the nation's ninth-largest utility, with more than $15 billion in assets when completed in March 1997.

State legislators and regulators moved yesterday to question utilities about the power outages that persist for tens of thousands of Marylanders nearly a week after Tropical Storm Isabel tore through the region. Virtually all schools and roads that were closed in Isabel's wake are open this morning. But 73,000 customers of the region's two major power suppliers - Baltimore Gas and Electric Co. and Potomac Electric Power Co. - were without electricity last night. Del. Dereck E. Davis, chairman of a committee that has oversight over the utilities, said he wants an explanation of what caused the widespread outages and why it took so long to restore power.

THE NATION'S economy may be jittery, but you wouldn't know it judging by building activity along Baltimore's shoreline: Construction has started on the city's first new office tower in a decade. The anchor tenant of the 18-story glass-and-granite sliver at 750 E. Pratt St. will be Constellation Energy Group Inc., the parent of Baltimore Gas and Electric Co. Seventy-six luxury townhouses and 164 apartments are being added to the HarborView development along Key Highway. Next door, at the foot of Federal Hill, planning continues for a Ritz-Carlton hotel and condominium project.

When his predecessor left for a job in the private sector, O. Ray Bourland III was handed the task of deciding the biggest rate case in the state's history -- a decision that will affect the electric bills of all Baltimoreans as well as the financial health of the Baltimore Gas and Electric Co.In his new position as chief hearing examiner for the state's Public Service Commission, Mr. Bourland will decide who should pay approximately $450 million for BG&E's...

THE GOVERNOR was right to call for an investigation into the response of Maryland's utility companies to Hurricane Floyd, but he shouldn't be looking for a scapegoat to make himself look good.Obviously, Marylanders who struggled without power -- some for a week -- feel the utility companies were ill-prepared for a storm that didn't appear to pack as big a wallop as others in recent years.But Baltimore Gas and Electric Co. officials say Floyd was more destructive than it appeared; in fact, the power company calls Floyd its most devastating storm in 40 years.

A MERGER involving the Baltimore Gas and Electric Co. was only a question of time. Since the enactment of the 1992 Energy Policy Act, the whole electric utility industry has been undergoing rapid transition. The same kind of deregulation that opened up telephone markets to cut-throat competition is now happening in the electricity business. Yesterday's utility monopoly must become nimble and innovative to survive and thrive.From a strict economic perspective, the marriage between BGE and Potomac Electric Power Co. makes sense.

Prince George's County and Potomac Electric Power Co. officials said yesterday that a contract has been signed that will bring a $200 million power plant to the county and produce as much as $100 million in tax revenues over the 25-year life of the agreement.The contract was signed with the Panda Energy Corp. of Dallas, which will build a natural gas power plant to sell electricity to Pepco, the Washington area's primary electric utility company. The plant will be at the Brandywine Maryland Industrial Commercial Complex, at the southeastern corner of the county, County Executive Parris N. Glendening said.

WASHINGTON - Pepco Holdings Inc., owner of the electric utility that serves the metropolitan Washington area, would have a $700 million claim if Mirant Corp., which filed for bankruptcy protection last week, cancels an electricity-supply contract, Pepco Chief Executive Officer Dennis Wraase said yesterday. The company would expect to recover a "substantial" amount of the claim through the bankruptcy court in the event of a cancellation, Wraase said in an interview. Pepco probably would raise customer rates to recover any money it can't get from Atlanta-based Mirant, he said.

WASHINGTON - Pepco Holdings Inc., owner of the electric utility that serves the metropolitan Washington area, would have a $700 million claim if Mirant Corp., which filed for bankruptcy protection last week, cancels an electricity-supply contract, Pepco Chief Executive Officer Dennis Wraase said yesterday. The company would expect to recover a "substantial" amount of the claim through the bankruptcy court in the event of a cancellation, Wraase said in an interview. Pepco probably would raise customer rates to recover any money it can't get from Atlanta-based Mirant, he said.

Pepco Holdings Inc. launched a lobbying campaign yesterday to defeat a House-passed bill that would allow two Maryland counties and their municipalities to shop for lower electricity rates on behalf of their citizens. The House bill would create a pilot program in Prince George's and Montgomery counties, where Pepco is a major power supplier. Starting Oct. 1, the bill would let each county, or its incorporated subdivisions, sign deals with licensed power suppliers to buy electricity in bulk for residents and small businesses in their areas, a practice known as aggregation.

THE NATION'S economy may be jittery, but you wouldn't know it judging by building activity along Baltimore's shoreline: Construction has started on the city's first new office tower in a decade. The anchor tenant of the 18-story glass-and-granite sliver at 750 E. Pratt St. will be Constellation Energy Group Inc., the parent of Baltimore Gas and Electric Co. Seventy-six luxury townhouses and 164 apartments are being added to the HarborView development along Key Highway. Next door, at the foot of Federal Hill, planning continues for a Ritz-Carlton hotel and condominium project.

Potomac Electric Power Co. said yesterday that it has signed an agreement to sell four power plants in Maryland and Virginia and other assets to a subsidiary of Atlanta-based Southern Co., the largest U.S. electricity producer, for $2.65 billion. The sale to Southern Energy - which was selected through a bid process that began in January - includes a 51.5-mile pipeline serving the Maryland power plants, an engineering and maintenance service facility, and other assets. Also, Southern Energy will operate and maintain two other Pepco power plants in Washington that weren't included in the sale.

THE GOVERNOR was right to call for an investigation into the response of Maryland's utility companies to Hurricane Floyd, but he shouldn't be looking for a scapegoat to make himself look good.Obviously, Marylanders who struggled without power -- some for a week -- feel the utility companies were ill-prepared for a storm that didn't appear to pack as big a wallop as others in recent years.But Baltimore Gas and Electric Co. officials say Floyd was more destructive than it appeared; in fact, the power company calls Floyd its most devastating storm in 40 years.

Joining a rising chorus of Marylanders protesting Baltimore Gas & Electric Co.'s repair performance after Hurricane Floyd, Gov. Parris N. Glendening ordered state regulators yesterday to investigate whether area utilities are maintaining proper emergency response plans.In calling on the Public Service Commission to investigate local power companies' disaster mitigation plans, the governor cited the recent hurricane and severe power outages to Potomac Electric Power Co. customers in January.

Baltimore Gas and Electric Co. and Potomac Electric Power Co. yesterday selected Constellation Energy Corp. as the name for their combined operations after completion of a pending merger in March 1997.Officials of the two utilities said they picked the Constellation moniker -- which BGE has used since 1985 for its various real estate, energy and investment subsidiaries -- partly because of its nebulous nature."We've chosen an identity that is not geographically confining and will serve us well in our franchised operating territories and beyond," BGE Chairman and Chief Executive Christian H. Poindexter, who is slated to become chief executive of the merged entity, said in a prepared statement.

Two of the state's biggest utilities participated in a nationwide drill yesterday intended to prepare computers against potential problems arising from the Year 2000.Baltimore Gas and Electric Co. and the Potomac Electric Power Co. were among 200 utilities participating for the first time in a series of national exercises aimed at getting equipment ready for Y2K.The test date, April 9, was chosen because it is the 99th day of 1999, a number experts feared some computer programs might interpret as an error, because some programmers once typed in a series of 9s as placeholders.

Five days after ice and wind storms knocked out power to 350,000 Baltimore Gas and Electric Co. customers in the metropolitan area, power was completely restored by 3: 30 p.m. yesterday.The problem -- concentrated most in Howard and Carroll counties -- required more than 800 BGE field employees, who worked around the clock. The few outages remaining last night were not related to the storms, said a BGE spokeswoman.As of 7 p.m. yesterday, Potomac Electric Power Co. had restored power to all but 3,500 customers in Montgomery County after Monday's high winds and heavy rains.