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.

Under the settlement,

Williams will pay $8 million to the California ISO, which had accused

the plants of unfairly withholding power at a time when all supplies were

badly needed. The California ISO is a nonprofit group that manages the

state's transmission grid to keep power flowing.

Neither Williams

nor AES Southland admitted wrongdoing in the settlement.

The company

recently announced plans to build a 1,230-megawatt energy supply facility

in South Fulton, off Peters Road between Ga. highways 138 and 92, using

30 acres of a 250-acre site.