The State Investment Commission has revamped its consultant structure, dividing the responsibilities among three companies. General Treasurer Frank Caprio, who chairs the SIC, said the change will allow for more consultant interaction with the SIC and staff, while giving the state access to a strong range of services to deal with the complexities in diversification and risk management of the $8-billion fund.

The new consultants are: Pension Consulting Alliance, as general policy consultant; Russell Investment Group, as implementation manager; and Brockhouse Cooper, as search and database services manager.

Caprio said the consultants were hired six months after the SIC issued a request for proposals. He said the new structure will provide a higher level of services at a lower cost than the former structure. “This is a particularly challenging time for institutional investors and public pension funds and having quality consultants providing reliable insight and analysis is critically important,” Caprio said. “The new consulting structure will allow us to utilize the strengths of each of these firms to give the fund the highest quality service at the best value possible.”

GTECH won’t be losing Kansas contract

Lottomatica SpA, the Italian owner of Providence-based GTECH, isn’t in danger of losing the concession for the Kansas state lottery after a software problem led to incorrect reporting of winning numbers, a company official said. GTECH, which manages the Kansas game, reported the wrong winning numbers on three days in late June and early July, according to the state lottery’s Web site. The error was detected during a verification process, the lottery said. Various news reports have said that the error could cause GTECH to lose the Kansas concession. “The contract was awarded to GTECH last year for a 10-year duration,” said an official for Lottomatica, the manager of Italy’s Lotto game. The official noted that the technical issue behind the incorrect reporting had been resolved. “What happened doesn’t call the contract into question.”

New location for Department of Business

The Rhode Island Department of Business Regulation said yesterday it has completed its relocation from 233 Richmond St., Providence, to the John O. Pastore Complex in Cranston. The DBR’s new address is 511 Pontiac Ave. and the offices are now located in buildings 68 and 69 in the Department of Labor and Training complex. Directions to the new office are available at the department’s Web site www.dbr.state.ri.us. The new telephone number is (401) 462-9500. The fax number is (401) 462-9532.

Maine zoning board gives OK to wind farm

Maine’s wilderness zoning board has given final approval to what would be New England’s largest wind power farm. TransCanada Maine Wind Development Inc., a unit of TransCanada Corp. of Calgary, Alberta, plans to erect 44 wind turbines on and near Kibby Mountain in western Maine at a cost of $270 million. The 132-megawatt project is expected to generate enough electricity to power 50,000 homes. The company has said it hopes to have the wind farm fully operational by the fall of 2010. The Maine Land Use Regulation Commission voted unanimously Wednesday to approve the final development permit. The LURC had previously agreed to rezone 2,367 acres to make way for the project.

ISO New England appoints new senior official

ISO New England Inc., operator of the region’s bulk power system and wholesale electricity markets, has announced the selection of Vamsi Chadalavada as senior vice president and chief operating officer, effective immediately. He replaces Stephen G. Whitley who retired from Holyoke, Mass.-based ISO New England after being named president and chief executive officer of the New York ISO. Chadalavada will be responsible for the day-to-day management of ISO New England system operations, system planning, wholesale markets development and operations, and information services. Previously, he was senior vice president of market and system solutions at ISO New England. As a member of the executive management team, he will continue to report directly to Gordon van Welie, ISO New England’s president and CEO. Chadalavada holds a doctorate in electrical engineering from Iowa State University.

Raytheon gets Homeland Security contract

The Department of Homeland Security has awarded Raytheon Co.’s Integrated Defense Systems, which has a unit in Portsmouth, a contract to continue development of a stand-off radiation detection system (SORDS). “The purpose of the SORDS is to develop advanced nuclear detectors that can determine the type and location of radiation sources at much greater distances than current technologies,” said Mark Russell, Raytheon’s vice president of engineering, technology and mission assurance. The eight-month contract for $4.7 million that is being managed by DHS’s Domestic Nuclear Detection Office is the second of a four-phase program worth a potential $9.9 million if all four options are exercised. A Raytheon team developed a preliminary prototype design in phase one, a $2.9-million DHS contract that ran from November 2007 to April 2008. Raytheon is teaming with experts from Los Alamos National Laboratory, Los Alamos, N.M.; Bubble Technology Industries, Chalk River, Ontario; Radiation Monitoring Devices, Watertown, Mass.; Draper Laboratory, Cambridge, Mass.; and MIT and the University of Michigan.

Mass. bill encourages use of biofuels

The Massachusetts House has unanimously approved a bill designed to encourage the use and production of biofuels in the state. The bill would require biofuel blends in home heating oil and create a first-in-the-nation state gas tax exemption on so-called cellulosic biofuel. The bill also calls for a reduction in the state’s 21 cents-per-gallon gasoline sales tax in proportion to the amount of biofuel in each gallon of gas. The incentive is designed to encourage fuel purchasers to buy advanced biofuels once they are on the market and reduce the risk associated with investing in biofuels production. The bill heads to the Senate, where president Therese Murray and Governor Patrick have endorsed the initiative.

Maine paper mill will not be closing yet

The Katahdin Paper Co. mill in Millinocket, Maine, which had planned to close July 28, will remain open after that date, Gov. John Baldacci said Wednesday after speaking with mill officials. The mill’s closing would have put more than 200 people out of work. Company officials said they have decided not to close the mill, but how long it stays open depends on cash flow and customer orders. Fraser Paper operates Katahdin’s mills in Millinocket and East Millinocket. Katahdin announced in late May that it planned to close the Millinocket mill because of record high oil prices. The East Millinocket mill, which makes paper used in phone directories and employs more than 400 people, was to remain open. That mill uses a wood-fired biomass boiler to power its papermaking operations. In June, Katahdin officials said they were trying to figure out how much time and money it would take to install a biomass boiler to provide fuel for its Millinocket mill and ease its reliance on oil so the mill could stay open. The Katahdin mill, which produces paper used in newspaper inserts and for years operated as Great Northern Paper, remains one of the few in Maine that relies almost entirely on oil to generate heat and steam for the paper-making process.

Danvers Bancorp joins Russell 3000 Index

Danvers, Mass.-based Danvers Bancorp Inc., the holding company for Danversbank, has been added to the Russell 3000 Index after the Russell Investment Group reconstituted its comprehensive set of U.S. and global equity indexes on June 27. Russell indexes are widely used by investment managers and institutional investors for both index funds and as benchmarks for passive and active investment strategies. The annual reconstitution of the Russell 3000 captures the 3,000 largest U.S. stocks as of the end of May, ranking them by total market capitalization. Danversbank, is a Massachusetts-chartered savings bank founded in 1850 as a mutual savings bank. It has grown to $1.6 billion in assets through acquisitions and internal growth, including branching.