With December and the onset of the winter natural gas demand season, the more than doubled capacity at Southern California Gas’ key Southern California interconnection, Kramer Junction, is operational but so far it is far from being fully utilized, a utility spokesperson said Friday in response to a NGI inquiry.

Since last September’s regulatory approvals, Kramer’s interruptible capacity was increased by up to 500 MMcf/d, the spokesperson confirmed. In mid-October, additional flows through Kramer peaked at about 350 MMcf/d, but the supplies have averaged “far less” for the overall three-month (September-November) period just completed.

Added capacity has basically been in place since shortly after the California Public Utilities Commission’s decision last September, and the added capacity could still facilitate additional upstream capacity flows from Kern River Pipeline, according to the spokesperson, but she would not specify whether it has at this point in the early winter heating season.

The expansive CPUC action two months ago was designed to get the southern portion of California’s gas transmission pipeline grid ready for more diverse future sources of supply, with the assumption that more competition ultimately will drive down wholesale natural gas prices, which remain high at the start of this winter season. SoCalGas was authorized to turn back interstate pipeline capacity under expiring long-term contracts, redesign its capacity holdings with more supplies from the Rocky Mountains and eventually introduce imported liquefied natural gas (LNG) into the mix.

Kern River has looked for immediate impact from the Kramer Junction expansion after operating with a takeaway limit of 200 MMcf/d capacity over the past few years. To date, from SoCalGas’ standpoint, it is too early to assess what the full impact of removing some of the past constraints at Kramer Junction will be.

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