FERC has decided to give Atlanta Gas Light (AGL) a short-termextension of waivers to Commission regulations to preserve the”status quo” of natural gas unbundling in the state while itexplores other non-waiver options for utilities.

The Commission limited the Atlanta, GA-based utility to only a17-month extension of its existing experimental waivers, which aredue to expire in October. AGL had asked for an extension of aboutthree and a half years.

But FERC cited concerns about the impact of granting such along-term extension on the interstate pipeline market. “Inaddition, if we were to extend the waiver for 3 « years, it isunclear that this would be Atlanta’s final request for a waiver ofthe capacity-release regulations. In fact, all indicators suggestotherwise,” the draft order said [RP98-206-005].

In June, AGL had asked FERC to extend and expand a waiver thatenables it to make consecutive monthly prearranged releases tomarketers of Part 284 capacity obtained at a discount from SouthernNatural Gas and other pipelines. It also sought a continuance ofthe waiver of the Commission’s “shipper-must-have-title” policy soAGL could allocate interstate capacity to marketers under itsIncremental Bundled Storage Service (IBSS). The utility’s existingwaivers were for one year.

Although it turned down AGL’s request for the longer extension,the Commission said it couldn’t cut the LDC off cold turkey fromthe waivers. It “recognizes that waiver of theshipper-must-have-title policy is important to Atlanta’s retailunbundling program as currently designed. A denial of extension ofthe waiver would likely require an immediate restructuring of theGeorgia retail unbundling program or, at a minimum, could causeparties hardship in continuing to proceed under the stateunbundling program…”

FERC settled on the short-term extension “to preserve the statusquo, while we explore the other options available that will enableAtlanta’s state retail unbundling program to proceed without thecontinuing need for waivers of the Commission regulations andspecial authorizations.” It also said it will hold a technicalconference to examine the effect of the waivers and Atlanta’sunbundling program on the interstate market. FERC directed a numberof pipelines that provide part 157 service to AGL-such as SouthernNatural, Transco, South Georgia Natural Gas and others-toparticipate in the conference. A date has not been set.

Separately, the Commission also awarded Baltimore Gas andElectric a 12-month waiver of its shipper-must-have-titleregulation in order to carry out a retail unbundling program.

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