French electricity giant EDF said on Wednesday that it had raised 2.0 billion euros (2.5 billion dollars) through an oversubscribed bond issue to help fund the group which is in the process of buying British nuclear power generators.

French electricity giant EDF said on Wednesday that it had raised 2.0 billion euros (2.5 billion dollars) through an oversubscribed bond issue to help fund the group which is in the process of buying British nuclear power generators.

MOSCOW, Oct 12, 2007 (AFP) - French electricity utility EDF is in talks to acquire a minority stake in Russia's Inter RAO electricity exporter, the daily Kommersant reported on Friday citing people familiar with the situation.

The sources did not know the exact size of the stake which EDF could acquire, though one of them told the newspaper EDF would not take less than 25 percent in the company.

The newspaper said talks were still at an early stage.

WASHINGTON, Oct 9, 2007 (AFP) - In a record-breaking environmental settlement, a US power company accused of endangering millions of people has pledged to slash its emissions of acid-rain gases, officials said Tuesday.

The government said its deal with American Electric Power, one of the nation's biggest coal-fired electricity producers, would reduce respiratory diseases and ground pollution across the eastern United States.

WASHINGTON, Oct 9, 2007 (AFP) - A giant US power company has agreed to the country's largest ever environmental settlement, agreeing to spend billions to slash its emissions of acid-rain gases, the government said Tuesday.

At an estimated cost of more than 4.6 billion dollars, American Electric Power is to cut its emissions of sulfur dioxide and nitrogen oxide, the Department of Justice and the Environmental Protection Agency said.

LOS ANGELES, Oct 2, 2007 (AFP) - Los Angeles area residents were invited Tuesday to turn off the lights for one hour on October 20 as a way to promote energy conservation.

City and county officials encouraged residents to participate in 'Lights out Los Angeles' activities by voluntarily turning off all non-essential lights between 8:00 and 9:00 pm (0300 and 0400 GMT October 21), and replace at least one incandescent light bulb with a low energy-consuming compact fluorescent bulb.

Some 10 million people live in the Los Angeles county area.

HARARE, Sept 29, 2007 (AFP) - Zimbabwe will experience more power cuts after Mozambique reduced supplies over unpaid debt, a state daily reported Saturday.

'Mozambique has reduced electricity supplies to Zimbabwe from 300 megawatts to 195 megawatts over a staggering debt of 35 million US dollars ... ' The Herald newspaper reported.

Zimbabwe imports 40 percent of its power needs: 100 megawatts a month from the Democratic Republic of Congo, 300 megawatts from Mozambique and up to 450 and 300 megawatts from South Africa and Zambia respectively.

MADRID, Sept 25, 2007 (AFP) - Iberdrola, Europe's third largest utility, said Tuesday that its construction unit has been awarded a contract worth 311 million euros (438.5 million US dollars) to build a 403-megawatt combined cycle electrical power plant in Russia.

'It is the company's first big contract in this country, where it opened a commercial office in 2005,' Iberdrola said in a statement.

BERLIN, Sept 24, 2007 (AFP) - The head of Germany's biggest energy company, EON, called for legal protection against hostile takeovers by foreign competitors, in an interview published Monday.

'It is unacceptable that companies that enjoy state protection in their own markets can make acquisitions in free markets like Germany's,' chief executive Wulf Bernotat told the business daily Financial Times Deutschland.

He said he backed proposals by the German government to amend its foreign trade law to take such takeovers into account.

BERLIN, Sept 17, 2007 (AFP) - The purchase of electricity company OGK-4 shows that German group E.ON is keen to become a major actor in the growing Russian market, in the midst of major reforms.

E.ON, the biggest German energy company, is to spend 4.1 billion euros (5.7 billion dollars) for 70 percent of the shares in OGK-4, one of several power companies that Russia has decided to privatise.

'It's the biggest investment in the history of the Russian electric sector,' Anatoly Chubais, chairman of the Russian electricity monopoly UES said Saturday.

BERLIN, Sept 17, 2007 (AFP) - German energy giant E.ON might make further acquisitions in Russia after buying the dominant stake in the OGK-4 electricity company, E.ON chief Wulf Bernotat said on Monday.

'We are going to watch the process, analyse and then take decisions,' Bernotat told reporters in a telephone conference, referring to the energy sector privatisation now underway in Russia.

MOSCOW, Sept 15, 2007 (AFP) - German energy giant E.ON has won the bidding for a 69-percent stake in Russian electricity company OGK-4 with an offer of around four billion dollars (2.9 billion euros), officials said on Saturday.

'It is the biggest investment deal in the history of Russia's electricity sector,' said Anatoly Chubais, the CEO of Russian electricity monopoly UES, according to ITAR-TASS news agency.

E.ON has offered 753 dollars per kilowatt of capacity for the 69-percent stake in OGK-4 that is currently owned by the state, Chubais said.

MOSCOW, Sept 12, 2007 (AFP) - Russian anti-monopoly authorities on Wednesday rejected a request by German industrial giant Siemens to purchase a controlling stake in a major producer of Russian electricity production equipment.

'Russia's Federal Anti-Monopoly Agency has turned down Siemens for the purchase of a controlling stake in Power Machines,' the anti-monopoly agency said in a statement.

MOSCOW, Sept 11, 2007 (AFP) - Russian industrial group Power Machines has won a 200-million-dollar (145-million-euro) tender to equip a hydroelectric power station in Mexico, the company said in a statement on Tuesday.

'Power Machines has won a tender as a subcontractor in a consortium with the Mexican companies ICA and Peninsular to equip the La Yesca hydroelectric power station with a capacity of 750 Megawatts,' the statement said.

MOSCOW, Sept 7, 2007 (AFP) - A Russian investor should get the majority stake in industrial holding Power Machines instead of Germany's Siemens, the head of Russia's electricity monopoly said on Friday.

'I believe it is crucial that the majority shareholder in Power Machines should be a private Russian strategic investor,' Anatoly Chubais, head of Unified Energy Systems, was quoted by Interfax news agency as saying.

DUBAI, Sept 2, 2007 (AFP) - Iraq will need to spend a total of around 25 billion dollars upto 2016 to upgrade its power generation and distribution capacity, Iraq's Electricity Minister Karim Wahid said on Sunday.

He told an oil conference in the Gulf emirate of Dubai that with nearly two billion dollars being needed in 2007, the total figure by 2016 would amount to 24,930 million dollars.

PRAGUE, Aug 30, 2007 (AFP) - Czech electricity giant CEZ and Hungarian oil and gas group MOL are seeking to form a major energy partnership aimed at boosting their businesses in Central and Eastern Europe with the possibility that CEZ will buy up to a 10.0 percent of MOL, CEZ said on Thursday.

The companies have signed a deal covering 'the establishment of a strategic alliance,' CEZ confirmed. 'To strengthen that strategic alliance, CEZ is considering the possibility of a capital entry into MOL by the purchase of up to a 10.0 percent stake in the company from it,' it added.

PRAGUE, Aug 30, 2007 (AFP) - Czech electricity giant CEZ and the Hungarian oil and gas group MOL are to form a major energy partnership aimed at boosting their businesses in Central and Eastern Europe, Czech media reported Thursday.

The companies are poised to sign a cooperation deal, the first fruits of which would be the construction of two gas-fired power plants, one in Hungary and the other Slovakia, with a total capacity of 800 MW, according to the online version of the Czech business magazine, euro.

DUSHANBE, Aug 29, 2007 (AFP) - Tajikistan on Wednesday scrapped an agreement with Russian aluminium giant Rusal for the construction of a hydroelectric power station, the Tajik president's office said.

'The agreement on long-term co-operation between the government of Tajikistan and Russian Aluminium has been annulled,' President Emomali Rakhmon's office said in a statement.

Rusal's office in the Tajik capital Dushanbe declined to comment.

BANJA LUKA, Bosnia-Hercegovina, Aug 28, 2007 (AFP) - The Bosnian Serb government and Norwegian power group Technor Energy agreed Tuesday to build hydro-electricity power plants on the river Bosna, a local radio station said.

Construction of seven 70-megawatt plants is to start next year under the terms of three contracts worth a total 152 million euros (207 million-dollars), Energy Minister Rajko Ubiparip said.

The plants are due do be completed in three years.

BISHKEK, Aug 28, 2007 (AFP) - The Russian garrison at an air base in Kyrgyzstan has been left without power after failure to pay the bill, local electricity company Severelectro said Tuesday.

The company said the barracks for 300 servicemen at the Kant base, near the Central Asian country's capital Bishkek, were cut off on Monday, but added that the air strips were not affected.

The Russian military promised that the unpaid bills of 13,000 dollars (9,500 euros) would be paid by the end of the week.

BAGHDAD, Aug 22, 2007 (AFP) - For war-weary residents of Baghdad fighting sweltering heat in near-blackout conditions, the message on Wednesday from Electricity Minister Karim Wahid was grim -- there won't be any relief this summer. Nor next summer. Nor even the one after.

'It will take another three to four years to fully rehabilitate the grid,' Wahid told reporters in an air-conditioned room in Baghdad's fortified Green Zone, while temperatures outside soared above 45 degrees Celsius (113 degrees Fahrenheit).

TOKYO, Aug 22, 2007 (AFP) - Japan's largest power company on Wednesday took rare emergency measures to address an imminent power shortage due to record heat and the suspension of an earthquake-hit nuclear plant.

Tokyo Electric Power Co. (TEPCO), the world's biggest private power company, implemented the emergency guidelines for the first time in 17 years, TEPCO spokesman Masayuki Yamato said.

Under the plan, TEPCO revived a hydraulic power plant north of Tokyo, which has been suspended by authorities as a penalty over the company falsifying documents.

GAZA CITY, Aug 22, 2007 (AFP) - Gaza's sole power plant received fuel on Wednesday, its director said, after the European Union resumed paying for the diesel to end days of blackouts in the impoverished Palestinian territory.

'We received three trucks of fuel -- enough for one day,' Rafiq Maliha told AFP. 'We need one hour to resume electricity production.'

Gaza's power plant, which provides around 25 percent of electricity in the territory, has not been fully operational since late Friday.

Since then, parts of the coastal strip have suffered from blackouts.

GAZA CITY, Aug 21, 2007 (AFP) - The European Union said it will resume financing fuel deliveries to the Gaza Strip's sole power plant on Wednesday, after five days of blackouts in the impoverished Palestinian territory.

The EU suspended its funding for the plant -- which provides about 25 percent of electricity in the coastal territory -- over fears that the radical Islamist Hamas movement would benefit from the aid.

BRUSSELS, Aug 21, 2007 (AFP) - The European Commission is prepared to resume its suspended fuel aid to the Gaza Strip but will take further action if an EU-Palestinian audit team is concerned about where the money is going, a spokeswoman said Tuesday.

The European Union announced it would resume financing fuel deliveries to the Gaza Strip's sole power plant on Wednesday, after five days of blackouts in the impoverished Palestinian territory.

JERUSALEM, Aug 21, 2007 (AFP) - The European Union will resume financing fuel deliveries for Gaza Strip's sole power plant on a provisional basis on Wednesday, an EU statement said.

'In agreement with the Palestinian Authority, the (European) commission will resume Wednesday, on a provisional basis, deliveries of fuel to the Gaza power plant,' said a statement from an EU spokeswoman received by AFP in Jerusalem.

No further details were immediately available.

CAIRO, Aug 21, 2007 (AFP) - Egypt said on Tuesday that Gaza's electricity supply should not be used for political ends after the European Union stopped paying for power station fuel fearing it could be funding Hamas.

A foreign ministry statement avowed Egypt's continued supply of electricity to the impoverished territory -- between five and 10 percent of the Strip's needs -- and said there was no excuse for cutting off power to Gazans.

GAZA CITY, Aug 21, 2007 (AFP) - Hamas said on Tuesday it will not interfere in the work of Gaza's electricity company in a bid to persuade the EU to resume financing of the territory's sole power plant and end five days of blackouts.

The Islamist movement denied it had diverted money from the electricity company after it seized control of Gaza two months ago and said it would provide guarantees that the utility would function independently.

TOKYO, Aug 21, 2007 (AFP) - Japan's largest power company said Tuesday it is preparing to take emergency measures to address an imminent power shortage due to the suspension of a giant nuclear plant following an earthquake.

Temperatures last week hit a record high in Japan. Demand is soaring this week as factories and offices resume operation following summer holidays, adding to the burden caused by air conditioning.

GAZA CITY, Aug 21, 2007 (AFP) - Hamas said on Tuesday it will not interfere in the work of Gaza's electricity company in a bid to persuade the European Union to resume financing of the territory's sole power plant to end blackouts.

The Islamist movement, which seized control of Gaza two months ago, denied it had diverted money from the territory's electricity company and said it would provide guarantees that the utility would function independently.

GAZA CITY, Aug 20, 2007 (AFP) - Gaza hummed with the sound of generators on a fourth day of power cuts on Monday as the European Union said it will not resume paying for fuel to run the impoverished territory's sole power plant unless it receives assurances Hamas will not benefit from the aid.

Candles disappeared from supermarket shelves as the coastal strip's residents stocked up on supplies in one of the world's most densely populated places, where the vast majority of people depend on outside aid for survival.

BRUSSELS, Aug 20, 2007 (AFP) - The European Union will not resume its financing of fuel supplies to the impoverished Gaza Strip if Hamas introduces taxes on electricity bills there, a spokeswoman in Brussels said Monday.

Blackouts again plagued the Gaza Strip on Monday after the EU cut the funding for fuel deliveries to the impoverished territory's sole power plant.

'We took a decision to suspend payments last Thursday for security reasons, in particular related to the intense situation at crossing points,' said European Commission spokeswoman Antonia Mochan.

GAZA CITY, Aug 20, 2007 (AFP) - Gaza hummed with the sound of generators on a fourth day of power cuts on Monday as the European Union reviewed whether to resume paying for fuel to run the impoverished territory's sole power plant.

Candles disappeared from supermarket shelves as the coastal strip's residents stocked up on supplies in one of the world's most densely populated places where most people depend on outside aid for survival.

GAZA CITY, Aug 19, 2007 (AFP) - Parts of the Gaza Strip were still suffering blackouts on Sunday after the European Union suspended the financing of fuel deliveries for the impoverished territory's only power plant.

It was the latest blow to hit one of the world's most overcrowded places that has been effectively sealed off by Israel since the Islamist movement Hamas seized control two months ago, sparking fears of a humanitarian crisis.