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John Fahy, director of structuring at RWE Trading Americas in Houston, has resigned. Fahy says he quit the operation "to look for opportunities outside of RWE," declining to elaborate on this point. RWE has one of the best structuring operations in the industry, he notes, adding that he had been at the firm since the inception of its U.S. operation. Prior to RWE, Fahy worked at PanCanadian Energy.

GE Structured Finance is looking to take its investment in global energy projects to around $12 billion over the next few years and one of the key areas of opportunity it sees is in U.S. power. "The restructuring of the U.S. industry, coming out of the events of the last few years, is creating a lot of opportunities," says Alex Urquhart, managing director of the Global Energy unit in Stamford, Conn. Underscoring that view, the unit of General Electric last week announced a $71 million deal to acquire a 49.5% stake in a 242 MW coal-fired plant from Mirant.

SEEBOARD Power Networks, a U.K. distribution unit of Electricité de France, tapped the sterling inflation-linked bond market for the first time May 16 with GBP50 million ($83 million) of 20-year bonds. The southeast England wires utility simultaneously issued GBP300 million of 23-year senior fixed-rate notes.

Bear Stearns has hired two heavy hitters from El Paso Corp. in Houston, a move that is widely seen as a precursor to the Wall Street firm acquiring distressed power assets. David Field, managing director and head of domestic M&A at El Paso, and Pam Baden, senior v.p., have joined Bear Stearns' strategic structured investment group in Houston. Baden confirmed her appointment but declined further comment. Field did not return calls. Calls to spokespersons at Bear Stearns in New York were not immediately returned.

Calpine has asked lenders for a 30-day extension on a $1 billion revolving credit facility which falls due May 23, as the two sides continue to haggle over the maturity of an extension. Calpine has been pushing for several weeks for a two-year deal, and lenders had been holding on to their one-year offer, but now lenders want to see evidence that the San Jose, Calif.-based IPP has access to the bond market.

AES and its three mandated lead arrangers ABN AMRO, Credit Agricole Indosuez and Société Générale have flexed the terms of its roughly EUR500 million non-recourse project loan funding the development of a 1.2 GW power project in Spain, known as Cartagena.

* Money manager Schroders has hired Lori Woodland as a fixed-income analyst focusing on energy and utilities. Woodland will be based in New York and joins from Deutsche Bank's portfolio management division (Euroweek, 5/16).

Citigroup last week put out a tender for an asset manager to run the Lake Road and La Paloma power plants sponsored by PG&E National Energy Group. Citigroup is searching for an asset manager as a precursor to assuming ownership of the assets, which are both in default, according to a market official. An official on Citigroup's global project and structured trade finance desk in New York declined comment. Calls to NEG were not returned.

LS Power is believed to have been appointed as the asset manager of a portfolio of four power plants sponsored by PG&E National Energy Group, according to industry officials. The GenHoldings portfolio, also known as the 'four pack', consists of three 1,000 MW plants that are under construction--Athens in New York state, Covert in Michigan and Harquahala in Arizona--and the operational 360 MW Millennium plant in Massachusetts.

Centrica, the U.K.'s largest gas and power supplier, plans to launch a Spanish retail operation early this summer, making it one of the first unregulated suppliers to enter Spain's newly liberalized supply sector. Centrica already operates supply operations in Belgium, Canada and the U.S., as well as its core U.K. supply business British Gas.