New Jersey Successfully Concludes Basic Generation Service (BGS) Auction
12 February 2004 - 9:19AM
PR Newswire (US)
New Jersey Successfully Concludes Basic Generation Service (BGS)
Auction PSE&G and State's Other Utilities Secure Contracts to
Continue Meeting Needs of All Electric Customers NEWARK, N.J., Feb.
11 /PRNewswire/ -- Public Service Enterprise Group (PSEG) said it
is pleased that New Jersey's third Basic Generation Service (BGS)
auction, the conclusion of which was announced today, has
successfully secured the electricity requirements for customers of
Public Service Electric and Gas Company (PSE&G), and the
state's three other electric utilities. The New Jersey Board of
Public Utilities (BPU) said this morning that it had approved the
results of the state's third annual auction process that began on
February 2. The process actually involved two concurrent auctions.
One, the Commercial and Industrial Energy Price (CIEP) or Hourly
Energy Price (HEP) auction, was to secure sufficient electricity to
serve approximately 1,850 large business customers statewide,
representing about 2,460 megawatts of load, for a one-year period.
The other, a general Fixed-Price (FP) auction in tranches of one-
and three-year periods, was to secure electricity to serve smaller
business and all residential customers, representing about 15,500
megawatts of load. All periods begin on June 1, 2004. The BPU has
issued a news release providing results of the auction. A copy is
attached. In the general auction, PSE&G's clearing price for
the one- year tranche was 5.479 cents per kilowatthour. For the
three-year tranche, it was 5.515 cents per kilowatthour. E. James
Ferland, chairman and chief executive officer of PSEG, praised the
BPU for "once again conducting a highly efficient auction." He said
the state's four electric utilities were able to secure all energy
necessary to meet the requirements of customers. "The auction was
very competitive, lasting seven business days, and this enabled
PSE&G to achieve attractive prices for its electric customers,"
Ferland said. Ferland said PSEG Power, which is PSEG's wholesale
energy business, participated as a direct bidder in the process.
"The auction has helped us to achieve our ongoing objective of
hedging better than 75% of Power's anticipated generation for the
next 18 to 24 months," Ferland said. "Our successin securing
contracts for our power output is a key element of our overall
business plans," Ferland said. He confirmed PSEG's earnings
guidance of $3.60 to $3.80 per share of common stock. Additional
information about the auction process will available on the BPU's
web site: http://www.bpu.state.nj.us/. FORWARD-LOOKING STATEMENT
Readers are cautioned that statements contained in this press
release about our and our subsidiaries' future performance,
including future revenues, earnings, strategies, prospects and all
other statements that are not purely historical, are
forward-looking statements for purposes of the safe harbor
provisions under The Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of
1995. Although we believe that our expectations are based on
reasonable assumptions, we can give no assurance they will be
achieved. The results or events predicted in these statements may
differ materially from actual results or events. Factors which
could cause results or events to differ from current expectations
include, among other things: the effects of weather; the
performance of generating units and transmission systems; the
availability and prices for oil, gas, coal, nuclear fuel, capacity
and electricity; changes in the markets for electricity and other
energy-related commodities; changes in the number of participants
and the risk profile of such participants in the energy marketing
and trading business; the effectiveness of our risk management and
internal controls systems; the effects of regulatory decisions and
changes in law; changes in competition in the markets we serve; the
ability to recover regulatory assets and other potential stranded
costs; the outcomes of litigation and regulatory proceedings or
inquiries; the timing and success of efforts to develop domestic
and international power projects; conditions of the capital markets
and equity markets; advances in technology; changes in accounting
standards; changes in interest rates and in financial and foreign
currency markets generally; the economic and political climate and
growth in the areas in which we conduct our activities; and changes
in corporate strategies. For further information, please refer to
our Annual Report on Form 10-K and subsequent reports on Form 10-Q
and Form 8-K filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission.
These documents address in further detail our business, industry
issues and other factors that could cause actual results to differ
materially from those indicated in this release. In addition, any
forward-looking statements included herein represent our estimates
only as of today and should not be relied upon as representing our
estimates as of any subsequent date. While we may elect to update
forward-looking statements from time to time,we specifically
disclaim any obligation to do so, even if our estimates change,
unless otherwise required by applicable securities laws.
DATASOURCE: Public Service Enterprise Group CONTACT: Paul
Rosengren, +1-973-430-5911, or Karen Johnson, +1-973-430-6397, both
of PSE&G Web site: http://www.pseg.com/
http://www.bpu.state.nj.us/
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