Friday, May 18,
2001
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Power plant company: No wrongdoing in California fine By JOHN
THOMPSON
A spokesman for the company that wants to build a huge power facility in South Fulton County said this week that a recent settlement in California showed no wrongdoing in the state's energy crisis. Williams Companies Inc. officials said the $8 million settlement paid earlier this year was accepted after officials at the company determined that charges and countercharges would not be constructive towards solving the state's energy crisis. The company has announced its intention of building a gas-fired power generating plant on Peters Road between Ga. highways 138 and 92. According to Reuters, late last month, Williams agreed to pay $8 million to settle accusations that it withheld electricity produced at two southern California generating plants from the California Independent System Operator. The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission enforcement decision was part of the investigation into the activities of California power generators, which have made huge profits because of soaring wholesale electricity prices during the past year. FERC staff recently raised "serious questions" about whether Williams unfairly withheld power last year from April 25 through May 5. Williams, a wholesale seller of electric power in California, marketed power produced by two AES Southland Inc. generation plants in southern California. The plants were shut down for what the owners said were necessary repairs, forcing the California ISO to buy power from other Williams units at about $750 per megawatt hour, instead of the contracted $63 per megawatt hour. FERC said Williams received about $10.85 million in extra revenue because of the unavailability of the two power units. Paula Hall-Collins, a senior public relations representative at Williams, said the company will not actually be paying the money, but rather deducting it from the nearly $300 million it is owed in back energy costs. Collins said she could not discuss exact specifics of the case, but said that Williams has put the matter in the past and is working with California officials to help the energy crunch by implementing programs such as short term price caps. In the situation that was investigated by FERC, Collins said AES had asked Williams to find other sources of power to help match the demand. "This was strictly a supply and demand issue," she said. Williams was not involved in the production of the power, only the marketing, she added. When the company went to find another power supply, it had to pay significantly higher rates for it, she said. "All the facts would have come out in a public hearing process, but we were never charged with any wrongdoing," she said.
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