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Canadian wires utility Hydro One and an infrastructure investment fund run by Australian investment bank Macquarie Corporate Finance have been shortlisted to acquire DTE Energy's Michigan-based wires unit, International Transmission System, according to a banker who is familiar with the deal. They join Trans-Elect, on a three-strong bidding roster (PFR, 9/9). Al Manchee, a Hydro One spokesman, was unable to provide comment by press time. Thomas Yanagi, a senior manager at Macquarie who looks at infrastructure investment opportunities, declined to comment.

XL Capital Assurance sees the downturn in the U.K. wholesale generation market creating new business opportunities for the New York monoline credit insurer.

Dresdner Kleinwort Wasserstein is struggling to syndicate a roughly $250-$300 million non-recourse loan earmarked to refinance the construction costs of a plant being developed by Houston energy concern El Paso. The 469 MW plant, dubbed Araucaria, is located in Brazil's Parana state.

The Inter-American Development Bank is close to approving a $150 million loan to partly fund the construction of Termoacu, a 340 MW combined-cycle gas-turbine plant in Rio Grande, Brazil. An IDB official says the development bank has already given funding for the project preliminary internal approval and likely will ink a deal by the turn of the year.

Lead arrangers Citibank and Mizuho Financial expect to close a $200 million long-term non-recourse loan toward the end of this month to partly finance the construction of Altamira, a $300 million, 495 MW combined-cycle gas-turbine plant in northeastern Mexico.

Public Service Enterprise Group will use the proceeds from a recent $400 million issue of mandatory convertibles to plug a balance sheet hole created by write downs of a series of investments, including its Argentina business, in the second quarter. Robert Busch, president and coo of PSEG Services and cfo at utility PSE&G, says the funds will also cover upcoming equity needs associated with generation development at PSEG Power.

TECO Power Services has again cut the amount of non-recourse funding it is looking to raise in its planned TriCo deal to around the $400 million mark, and in addition project financiers have been told not to expect the deal anytime soon. Lead bankers had been signaling this summer that a $500 million loan for TECO's 599 MW Dell power plant in Dell, Ark., the 599 MW McAdams unit in Kosciusko, Miss., and the 477 MW Frontera plant in Texas, was imminent (PFR, 7/22). Calls to Laura Plumb, spokeswoman at TECO in Tampa, Fla., were not returned.

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 .

Moves to sell Damhead Creek, Entergy Wholesale Operations' ailing U.K. merchant power plant, moved a step closer earlier this month after the lead banks involved in funding the 800 MW gas-fired facility pushed for a loan restructuring that would make an outright sale easier to executive.

Barclays Capital began trading the U.K. power market at the turn of the month. Richard Lewis, head of power, says the move is the first stage of a broader rollout into gas and power trading across Europe. The next step will be to commence U.K. gas trading before Barclays pushes into mainland Europe, says the former Enron honcho who joined Barclays this spring to launch its energy-trading unit (PFR, 3/25).