CenterPoint Energy estimates its stranded costs at

CenterPoint Energy estimates its stranded costs at $3.8-bil

Washington (Platts)--31Mar2004


Houston-based CenterPoint Energy's retail electric transmission and
distribution utility Wednesday said it will seek to recover $3.8-bil in
stranded power plant costs, the cost of environmental controls and other
transition costs related to the state's 1999 retail restructuring law. The
law, which allowed state consumers to select their retail power supplier
starting in 2002, authorized utilities to recover such costs through a 2004
"true-up" balance by issuing low-interest bonds. The bonds will be paid
through higher power-delivery charges to retail electric providers. In
announcing its true-up balance, the company's T&D affiliate CenterPoint Energy
Houston Electric said an additional $631-mil in interest could be added if
approved in a pending court proceeding. The company said the effect on
residential customers should be modest and that based on current interest
rates, the balance would be amortized by annual payments of $330-mil and would
result in a 0.5 ct/kWh increase in the rate it charges retail providers.

This story was first published in Platts real-time news and market reporting
service Platts Electricity Alert (http://electricityalert.platts.com ).