LADWP, Run By Davis Adviser, Cashed In On Calif Crisis

Dow Jones Capital Markets Report via Dow Jones


   By Jason Leopold
   Of DOW JONES NEWSWIRES


  LOS ANGELES (Dow Jones)--On a single day in June 2000, the Los Angeles
Department of Water and Power, the largest municipal utility in the country,
raked in $5 million selling California surplus power for $1,000 a
megawatt-hour
- about 30 times the average price the utility charged the month before.

  That sale, reported by the California Independent System Operator and
confirmed by the LADWP in an interview last June, was one of many instances
in
which the municipal utility cashed in on California's power crisis.

  On Monday, the Department of Water Resources, the agency that has been
purchasing California's bulk power needs in lieu of the state's
cash-strapped
utilities, released a detailed report of spot-market power purchases showing
the
LADWP charged the state an average of $242 a megawatt-hour for power from
Jan.
18 through May 31 this year. That price is about $35 higher than those
charged
by most of the out-of-state generators Gov. Gray Davis has criticized
repeatedly
as price gougers.

  Potentially embarrassing for the Davis administration, however, is that
the
LADWP was formerly run by General Manager David Freeman, who in April became
Davis' top energy adviser.

  Steve Maviglio, press secretary to Davis, said Texas-based generators are
primarily to blame for the high wholesale prices that crippled the state's
two
largest utilities.

  "Anywhere they wear cowboy hats, they probably have handkerchiefs across
their
face, because they are robbing us blind," he said. "The bad guys are clearly
the
out-of-state generators."

  Freeman's trademark is a white Stetson.

  The former LADWP chief, who last September quipped that a "blind pig could
make money" under California's faulty deregulation setup, didn't return
calls
for comment.

  Freeman took a leave of absence from the LADWP in January to negotiate
long-term power contracts on behalf of the state.

     Power To Sell


  According to the DWR report, the LADWP brought in $331 million selling
power
to the state between Jan. 18 and May 31 this year.

  The LADWP, which didn't take part in the state's deregulation debacle and
which isn't under the jurisdiction of federal energy regulators, also cashed
in
throughout 2000. The utility has 7,000 megawatts of generation capacity but
only
needs about 5,500 MW to serve its retail customers, freeing it to sell as
much
as 1,000 megawatts to the ISO at prices comparable to what the generators
were
charging.

  The LADWP did so well that it was able to pay down $200 million in debt
and
will reduce its customers' rates in 2002.

  "It just shows you that enterprise is where you find it," Freeman said in
an
interview last year.

  Last July, ratings agency Fitch concluded that California's electricity
shortage provided LADWP "an opportunity for the sale of surplus power at
favorable prices which added to the municipal system's coffers."

  According to a report by the ISO, manager of the state's electricity grid,
the
LADWP overcharged California for power from May 2000 through February 2001
by as
much as $20 million. Maviglio said the state will pursue refunds from the
utility.

  On Tuesday, an LADWP spokesman defended the utility's power prices, saying
the
costs of producing electricity were extremely high.

  The ISO has estimated that the state was overcharged nearly $9 billion for
electricity sales in the 12 months ended May 2001. On Monday, settlement
talks
between state officials and generators over the refunds broke down.

  Other municipal utilities, including the Sacramento Municipal Utility
District
and private companies like BC Hydro in Canada, have also racked up enormous
sums
selling surplus power to California at the last minute.

  -By Jason Leopold, Dow Jones Newswires; 323-658-3874;
jason.leopold@dowjones.com


  (END) Dow Jones Newswires  07-10-01

  1557EDT

(AP-DJ)--07-10-01 1557EDT
:TICKER: EIX PCG SRE
:SUBJECT: EUTL CA COBO MU PETR
Copyright (c) 2001 Dow Jones and Company, Inc.
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