FERC last week conditionally approved Reliant Energy GasTransmission’s proposal to allow shippers on its system to makemore liberal nominations.

The order, which was voted out Wednesday, would allow Reliantshippers to submit nominations any time of the day to be effectiveat the top of each hour, provided the nominations are made at least60 minutes in advance. The move towards hourly nominations reflectsthe increasingly close alliance between the natural gas and powergeneration markets, Reliant said.

To implement the flexible proposal, Reliant sought a waiver ofthe Gas Industry Standards Board’s (GISB) rules with respect tonomination timelines and cycles. But the Commission said thiswasn’t necessary since Reliant’s proposal “satisfies and goesbeyond” the existing GISB standards for pipeline nominations.

The GISB standards represent minimum requirements for pipelines,the FERC order noted. “Pipelines may go beyond these minimumrequirements and.offer more nomination opportunities than thoserequired by GISB. However, this does not require or justify awaiver.”

FERC granted Reliant a “limited waiver” of GISB bumpingstandards enabling Reliant firm shippers to bump interruptibleshippers consistent with the hourly nomination cycle. However, itrejected the pipeline’s request for bumping IT shippers after 5p.m. on the day of gas flow. Moreover, it refused to waive the GISBrule requiring bumping that affects multiple pipelines to occur at”grid-wide synchronization times only.”

FERC “finds that waiver of this standard could create imbalanceson other pipeline systems and adversely impact synchronization ofpipeline operations across the grid. Therefore, while Reliant maybump interruptible shippers on its own system, it may not bump suchshippers outside of the GISB timeline if such bumping affectstransactions on other pipelines,” the order said.

The Commission also rejected Reliant’s request to remove thecurrently effective GISB nomination timeline from its tariff.”Since Reliant’s system interfaces with those of other pipelines,it is important that shippers moving gas across Reliant’s systemhave a mechanism in place to coordinate with adjacent pipelinesystems.”

Susan Parker

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