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Some $400 million in financing earmarked for the construction of two combined-cycle gas turbine plants being developed by Spanish utility Union Fenosa is likely to be delayed. The plants, dubbed Tuxpan III and IV, will have 938 MW of combined generation capacity and are located in the state of Vera Cruz, Mexico. A project financier familiar with the matter says Deutsche Bank and Bank of Tokyo Mitsubishi have been struggling to pull the deal together and will likely not close it until the fall. Bankers at Deutsche Bank declined to comment and bankers at BoTM did not return calls. Calls to officials at Union Fenosa were also not returned.

The MYA Groupand Global Change Associatesjointly held the Green Trading Summit: Emissions, Renewables & Negawatts in New York City on May 14-15. Some 150 executives, primarily from the utility, power marketing and energy sectors, attended. Reporter Amanda Levin Arnold filed the following stories:

Even though the Bush administration has vowed not to follow the Kyoto Protocol, a large number of U.S. companies, especially from the power industry, realize that since many of them have operations around the world they need to adapt to the soon-to-be ratified global warming pact, said Michael Walsh, senior v.p. of Chicago-based Environmental Financial Products.

Sponsors of power projects could benefit from structured debt financing to meet the upfront costs of purchasing greenhouse gas emissions credits, William Klun, v.p. at DZ Bank in New York, told conference attendees. He explained that financing for the emission credits would require bringing in a multi-lateral lending institution with a high credit rating, which would end up raising the overall credit quality of the project. However, he said that the insurance industry would probably have to get involved at some point and provide a credit wrap until the market evolves.

Discredited electricity trading shops, such as CMS Energy, Dynergy and Reliant Resources, which used bogus "round-trip" transactions to boost revenue, will need to post significantly more collateral to convince counterparties its safe to resume trading with them, according to the head of trading at a European shop and an analyst in New York. Many counterparties are believed to have cut their trading lines with Reliant and CMS. Dearborn, Mich.-based CMS last week admitted it used bogus trades to inflate its trading volume by 80% in one year. The cost of posting additional collateral will significantly increase the expense of trading and could result in some of these firms winding up their trading desks, the senior trader adds.

Weather derivative dealers say activity in monthly trades has spiked sharply in the traditionally busy pre-summer market for cooling degree-day deals. One trader says his desk's book has moved from a 90:10 weighting toward whole season flows last spring to a roughly 50:50 split this year. While some aren't seeing quite so dramatic a swing, officials believe the trend is positive. "I think most markets eventually go down to the lowest unit and it helps dealers," says Jeff Porter, business leader on the weather desk at Hess Energy Trading Co. in New York. This means greater liquidity and therefore greater flexibility for dealers to hedge their books and offset trades.

Edison Mission Energy has hired Andy Pace, senior power trader at NRG Energy in London, according to a market official. Pace, who will join Edison Mission June 5 as a shift trader on the company's 24-hour trading desk, declined comment. Phil Edgington, head of trading at EME in Bala House, near Chester, did not return calls.

MidAmerican Energy Holdings is launching an $875 million loan funding the expansion of the Kern River natural gas pipeline, a deal bankers say should be well received because of the high credit rating of the project and also the scarcity of gas transmission project paper. "So many people have gorged on power that people will go for the diversification," says one banker who will likely sign up for the deal at the retail level.

Williams has hired two coal traders in London as it looks to build up its international presence in the market from scratch. At the beginning of May the firm hired Alan Gillespie from Duke Energy International and Ivan Van Kiekerk from derivative broker Tradition Financial Services. Gillespie says the move reflects the growing maturity of financial contract-based coal trading.

Lead arrangers Bank of New York and Union Bank of California last week wrapped syndication on a 364-day revolver for Spokane, Wash.-based Avista, and increased its size to $225 million from the originally planned $200 million target. A UBoC official says the company had a strong story to tell because it has negligible spot market exposure and it's been a good hydro season in the Pacific Northwest. It also benefited from a dearth of rival deals. Rounding out the roster are US Bank with a $25 million ticket and Key Bank and Washington Mutual, which dropped in $20 million, the banker says. BoNY and UBoC each committed $45 million. Soon after the April 9 launch FleetBoston, Wells Fargo and Bank Hapoalim committed to the deal, which replaces an expiring loan (PFR, 4/21).