Did you see the Dow Jones Utility Average (DJUA) took a dive today? (See chart) It was down 2.10%. Seven of the 15 were down the same percentage or more. While trying to determine the reason for the drop, I noticed that more than a few of the big dropping utilities experienced unplanned outages in July. Only one utility outide of the big drop group experienced an unplanned outage. Some of these plants are over 41 years old, most were natural gas fired plants.

Here’s the current makeup of the DJUA. Fifteen stocks make up the average. They are:

* AES Corp The (AES) (electric utilities) - Down 3.3% today

Unit 5 at the Alamitos natural gas-fired power station in California was off-line by Monday afternoon in an unplanned outage, The same unit was out for a short-term shutdown last week as well.

Redondo Beach Unit 8 natural gas-fired power station in California was off-line for unplanned maintenance on Thursday (Jul 10), Now, both Unit 7 with a capacity of 493 MW and Unit 8 are down, Both units are 41 years old

The Alamitos 6 natural gas-fired power station in California was back off-line by Wednesday afternoon (Jul 9) in an unplanned outage, The same unit was out for a short-term shutdown earlier this week as well,

* American Electric Power Co., Inc. (AEP) (electric utilities) -Down 2.11% today

Planned to restart the 690-megawatt Oklaunion coal-fired power station in Texas on July 15 after fixing an ash conveyor, The unit shut July 12-13 for the work.

* CenterPoint Energy, Inc. (CNP) (diversified utilities)

* Consolidated Edison, Inc. (ED) (diversified utilities)

* Dominion Resources, Inc. (D) (electric utilities) - Down 2.58% today

Unit 2 at the Millstone nuclear power station in Connecticut returned to full power by early Thursday, The unit was operating at 70 percent of capacity early Wednesday after exiting an outage.

* Duke Energy Corp. (DUK) (electric utilities)

* Edison International (EIX) (electric utilities) - Down 2.12% today

The Mountainview natural gas-fired power station in Southern California returned to service by Sunday afternoon, The unit shut for planned and unplanned reasons by July 11.

* Exelon Corp. (EXC) (diversified utilities) - Down 2.88% today

* F P L Group Corp. (FPL) (electric utilities)

* FirstEnergy Corp. (FE) (electric utilities) - Down 3.61% today

* NiSource, Inc. ( NI) (diversified utilities)

* PG&E Corp. (PCG) (diversified utilities)

Unit 2 at the Helms Pumped Storage hydropower station in California was off-line in an unplanned outage by Wednesday afternoon,

* Public Service Enterprise Group, Inc. (PEG) (diversified utilities) - Down 2.19% today

* Southern Company, Inc. (SO) (electric utilities)

* Williams Companies, Inc. (WMB) (oil & gas pipelines)

Sometimes, I wonder if our whole infrastructure is beginning to fail.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Mike Landfair is the editor of Mover Mike. He is a retired stock broker, and now supports his wife's furniture business. He is her warehouseman, deluxer, and marketing guru. In addition, he writes poetry and finds abundance, health and joy in the world around him while pondering life's little mysteries.