Avista Corp. just cant catch a break with its joint-venture Coyote Springs 2 power plant, which has been under construction at Boardman, Ore., since 2000.


Last May, a transformer at the plant caught fire, delaying the project by several months. Now, the replacement unit for that transformer has been damaged in shipment from Turkey, and repairs to it will push the completion of the project back another six months, says Avista spokesman Hugh Imhof.


These transformers, you dont just go down to Ace Hardware and get one, Imhof says. Repairs to the $1.8 million transformer are taking place in the U.S.


Currently, Avista expects the 280-megawatt, gas-fired Coyote Springs 2 plant to come on line in Julyabout a year after the company originally projected it would, Imhof says.


He says he doesnt know how much the combined delays have cost Avista.


Fortunately, he says, the market price of power is low now, so Avista isnt paying premium prices for the power it currently is buying that eventually it will replace with electricity generated at the Coyote Springs project. In fact, the current cost to Avista to buy power is pretty close to what wed operate the plant for, he says.


The Spokane utility sold 50 percent of the estimated $190 million project to Mirant Corp., of Atlanta, in 2001.


Separately, analyst James Bellessa, of Great Falls, Mont.-based D.A. Davidson & Co., recently reaffirmed the firms buy rating on Avista stock.


We are maintaining our buy rating on Avista due to the companys recent exoneration from any wrongdoing in the morass surrounding Enron, Bellessa wrote earlier this month in a report on Avista. In addition, Avista shares, which earlier this week were trading at just under $11, are well below the companys $15.11 book value as of Sept. 30, 2002, he says.


Bellessa says hes maintaining an earnings estimates for Avista of 67 cents per share for 2002, and 85 cents per share in 2003.