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Who said sex has no place in the power industry? A really strong CEO probably gets that thrill from the work, and John Rowe revealed it today.

At the National Press Club, the Exelon CEO was asked if it was still important to his company, if it wanted to be a national utility, to develop a Texas presence by buying NRG Energy. He'll be 64 next week, he said. "I'm an aging male. Lust is a constant problem."

If the NRG deal doesn't work out, would he be looking at other purchase opportunities? 'I've had a rabid devotion to shareholder value," Rowe said, "and I'll have to learn to keep my lust under control."

About that NRG deal, Rowe said he would sue NRG if its shareholders don't meet soon to consider Exelon's $6 billion hostile takeover bid.

Ten years ago, everything began to change in the power sector. Now there are signs that some things are changing back. In Texas, at least. Witness the once pure merchant company, NRG Energy, reconstituting in large part the former utility in Houston.

Against a backdrop of industry deregulation, in 1999 three local utilities in the upper Midwest -- one was Northern States Power in Minnesota -- were grouped together under a holding company that was given, as was customary at the time, the rather vague name of Xcel Energy. Some of Xcel's generation assets were then hived off, and a new merchant firm was created, called NRG Energy.

Wind-power webinars? Biofuel blogs? Transmission twittering? Fuel rods on Facebook?

Why not?

A study released today by Microsoft and Accenture shows that the oil- and gas-producing industry loses about a half-billion dollars annually because of a lack of job-related ''social networking.''