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Goldman Sachs is on the verge of becoming a power plant owner in the beat up U.K. generation market. A City official says the Wall Street firm is holding exclusive negotiations with New Orleans-based Entergy about acquiring its 800 MW Damhead Creek plant in Kent, southern England. Rebecca Nelson, a spokeswoman at Goldman, confirmed that the bulge bracket outfit has looked at investment opportunities in the U.K. electric industry, but declined further comment. Gareth Brett, head of Entergy's European operations, did not return calls.

An International Power-led consortium has emerged as the frontrunner to land the acquisition and expansion rights to the Um Al Nar power plant in Abu Dhabi, after one of the three shortlisted bidders, Tractebel, failed to table a bid at the auction last week.

The liquidity crunch that's squeezing the power industry is prompting rating agencies to increasingly look over their shoulders to see what their rivals are up to.

El Paso is looking to either arrange a non-recourse loan or tap the Brazilian bond market to finance the $300 million expansion of a 64 MW combined-cycle power plant in northern Brazil to 340 MW. A project financier familiar with the matter says El Paso will determine the best method of financing the Termonorte II plant in Rondonia state by mid-next year and expects to complete the deal by year-end. He adds the Inter-American Development Bank already has agreed to partly fund the project.

Exelon reportedly has scrapped plans to acquire a second Midwest utility after its approaches were rebuffed. A New York banker close to the matter says Exelon was involved in serious discussions with two separate utilities, but failed to strike a deal with either after haggling over price. The banker refused to name the targets and Donald Kirchoffner, an Exelon spokesman, declined all comment.

Duke Energy successfully completed its second tightly priced bond offering in less than a month two weeks back, highlighting fixed-income investors' continued faith in the credit, in contrast to the mauling Duke's taken at the hands of the stock market. Its share price has fallen more than 50% this year to $18.62 last Thursday.

Calpine has begun sounding out banks about forming a club to finance the construction of a 600 MW, combined-cycle gas-fired plant in Wisconsin. The San Jose, Calif., independent power producer is looking to get four banks in the club and avoid a retail round of syndication, says one banker, who adds the deal is in the cards for early next year. At this early stage, the dollar size of the loan is unclear, but the structure is expected to include a 70:30 debt-to equity mix, the banker says. Calls to Katherine Potter, spokeswoman at Calpine, were not returned by press time.

Following is a directory of ongoing generation asset sales. The accuracy of the information, which is derived from many sources, is deemed reliable but cannot be guaranteed. To report new auctions or changes in the status of a sale, please call Will Ainger, managing editor, at (44-20) 7303-1735 or e-mail wainger@euromoneyplc.com .

The Inter-American Development Bank has had to push back plans to develop a $320 million transmission line across Central America after a November deadline to get approval from all eight countries interconnected by the network was passed. A Wall Street banker familiar with the matter says the IDB has been forced to grant El Salvador an extension to approve the project. Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua, Costa Rica and Panama have already approved the project.

New York State Electric and Gas (NYSEG), a wholly owned subsidiary of Energy East, tapped the bond market with $150 million of five-year notes and $100 million of 10-year notes earlier this month to both cut its tax liabilities and its funding costs.Chris Modesti, director of corporate finance at Energy East, says the new bond offering will likely slash approximately $3 million annually off its interest bill.