A spokesman

for the company that wants to build a huge power facility in South Fulton

County said this week that a recent settlement in California showed no

wrongdoing in the state's energy crisis.

Williams Companies

Inc. officials said the $8 million settlement paid earlier this year was

accepted after officials at the company determined that charges and countercharges

would not be constructive towards solving the state's energy crisis.

The company

has announced its intention of building a gas-fired power generating plant

on Peters Road between Ga. highways 138 and 92.

According to

Reuters, late last month, Williams agreed to pay $8 million to settle

accusations that it withheld electricity produced at two southern California

generating plants from the California Independent System Operator.

The Federal

Energy Regulatory Commission enforcement decision was part of the investigation

into the activities of California power generators, which have made huge

profits because of soaring wholesale electricity prices during the past

year.

FERC staff

recently raised "serious questions" about whether Williams unfairly

withheld power last year from April 25 through May 5.

Williams, a

wholesale seller of electric power in California, marketed power produced

The plants

were shut down for what the owners said were necessary repairs, forcing

the California ISO to buy power from other Williams units at about $750

per megawatt hour, instead of the contracted $63 per megawatt hour.

FERC said Williams

received about $10.85 million in extra revenue because of the unavailability

of the two power units.

Paula Hall-Collins,

a senior public relations representative at Williams, said the company

will not actually be paying the money, but rather deducting it from the

nearly $300 million it is owed in back energy costs.

Collins said

she could not discuss exact specifics of the case, but said that Williams

has put the matter in the past and is working with California officials

to help the energy crunch by implementing programs such as short term

price caps.

In the situation

that was investigated by FERC, Collins said AES had asked Williams to

find other sources of power to help match the demand.

"This

was strictly a supply and demand issue," she said.

Williams was

not involved in the production of the power, only the marketing, she added.

When the company went to find another power supply, it had to pay significantly

higher rates for it, she said.

"All the

facts would have come out in a public hearing process, but we were never

charged with any wrongdoing," she said.