The potential is enormous. India is already the world's sixth-largest energy consumer, and this market continues to expand despite the economic sluggishness affecting other parts of the region. Electric supply is about 30 percent below the country's steadily growing needs.

The GVK Industries gas-fired plant, which CMS Energy completed in 1997, was India's first internationally-owned and operated power plant. The CMS-operated plant finished its first full year of operation in 1998.

At year-end, CMS Energy began generating electricity ahead of schedule from its second plant, GMR Vasavi, in southeast India. Together, these plants total 435 megawatts of generating capacity.

Construction will begin this year at the 250 megawatt Neyveli plant in southern India. CMS will operate the lignite coal-fueled plant when it begins commercial operation in 2001.

And at year-end, a CMS Energy-led consortium won a bid to build a $1.6 billion power and LNG gasification facility on India's east coast. It is the largest energy infrastructure project in the state of Tamil Nadu. It includes an 1,886 megawatt gas-fueled plant and 2.5 million tons per year liquefied natural gas facility.

Elsewhere in Asia, the 300 megawatt National Power Supply plant in Thailand will be completed this spring. Located in an industrial park east of Bangkok, 60 percent of the plant's capacity will be sold to the Electric Generating Authority of Thailand under long-term contract. The remainder, as well as process steam, will be sold to industrial park tenants.

CMS also formed a partnership that purchased 88 percent of the 860-mile Goldfields pipeline system in western Australia. The pipeline can deliver 88 million cubic feet per day of natural gas into the country's nickel and gold mining region. With production costs that are among the lowest in the world, these mines are expected to provide a steady gas market. The Goldfields system complements CMS Energy's 260-mile Parmelia pipeline, which was the first to bring natural gas to the Perth metropolitan area.

The 2,000 megawatt Loy Yang plant completed a year of world-class performance. The plant established new lifetime standards in availability, capacity, forced outage rate and plant emissions. The Australian Environmental Protection Agency honored Loy Yang's environmental program with its highest recognition. And for the second straight year, the Australian National Safety Council gave the plant its highest rating.