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Tractebel and a consortium led by the Brazilian arm of Alcoa, the world's largest aluminum producer, jointly won a government auction July 12 to build and operate a 1,087 MW hydroelectric power plant in Brazil, dubbed Estreito, says a project financier close to the matter.

Pittsburgh, Pa.-based DQE has been shopping itself for much of the past year, say Wall Street officials, and has received unsuccessful bids from a number of rivals including Dominion and Equitable Resources, a natural gas distributor, says one market watcher. Joe Balaban, a DQE spokesman, says the company is not for sale, but declined to comment on whether it has shopped itself at any time over the past year. Calls to officials at Dominion and Equitable Resources were not returned.

Oakbrook Terrace, Ill.-based Alliant Energy Generation (AEGen), the non-regulated generation subsidiaryAlliant Energy Resources, will be looking for bids on its first project finance deal next month. Mark Condon, senior v.p of finance, says the company will be looking to finance a significant chunk of its $109 million acquisition of a 309 MW plant from Mirant with non-recourse debt, with the aim of wrapping the financing at the start of the fourth quarter. The deal for the Neenah, Wis., natural gas-fired plant was announced last week and is also expected to close in the fourth quarter.

Rival weather traders that have been considering bidding on Aquila's weather derivatives operation are being told the book isn't for sale, as the Kansas City, Mo.-based player is looking for a buyer, or partner, for its entire merchant trading and risk management operation. Last month Aquila signaled it was re-trenching its trading operation and hired New York advisory boutiqueThe Blackstone Group to identify potential transactions and partners for its wholesale energy business. Blackstone staffers have been telling interested weather officials that at the moment, Aquila won't be selling weather as a standalone business. Calls to Raffiq Nathoo, senior managing director at Blackstone, were not returned.

Dearborn, Mich.-based CMS Energy is looking to raise $250 million via an equity or equity-linked securities offering, funds that will have to be raised following the agreement of new loan financing, otherwise it will not be able to pay dividends after Dec. 31.

Swiss Reheld its Emissions Reductions: Main Street to Wall Street-The Climate In North America conference in New York City on July 17-18. Some 290 executives primarily from the utility, energy and insurance industries, attended. Reporter Amanda Levinfiled the following stories:

Houston-based Reliant Resources told bankers last week it will not try to replace an $800 million facility falling due Aug. 15 and will instead term it out for one year. The move cuts out what would likely be a tough negotiation process that might have proved fruitless. Indeed, fellow troubled IPP Mirant last week had to term out a $1.25 billion revolver. Lenders had proved reluctant to commit to the new deal for the Atlanta independent power producer (PFR, 7/8).

TECO Power Services and its lead bank are readying the launch of a roughly $500 million non-recourse loan for the development of its 599 MW Dell power plant in Dell, Ark., and the 599 MW McAdams unit in Kosciusko, Miss. The deal represents a downsized dollar total from a planned $647 million facility spiked at the end of last year, according to a banker.

Houston-based Reliant Resources told bankers earlier this week it will not try to replace a $2.4 billion facility falling due Aug. 15 and will instead term-out the existing deal. The move cuts out what would likely be a tough negotiation process that might have proved fruitless. Indeed, fellow troubled IPP Mirant last week had to term out a $1.25 billion revolver, notes a banker tracking both deals. Lenders have proved reluctant to commit to the new deal for the Atlanta IPP (PFR, 7/8). Reliant Resources was unable to provide comment immediately.

Several former Exelon Power Team energy derivatives structurers are launching what they believe will be one of the first hedge funds to take positions in energy derivatives. The fund, to be called GingerBread Man Partners, will begin by trading liquid exchange-traded options, such as natural gas and heating oil contracts on the New York Mercantile Exchange. Once it grows to about USD10 million under management, it will be able to trade off-exchange exotics, for example, best-of options and spark spread options, as well as more standardized over-the-counter products, Tamir Druz, partner and managing director in Philadelphia, told PFR sister publication Derivatives Week.