Although there was no agreement on the level of preparedness of the of the western energy infrastructure, a federally developed overview concluded that the interstate natural gas pipeline capacity was adequate to serve the large influx of new gas-fired power plants being built in the region, participants heard Friday at a FERC conference in Seattle.

But an Arizona regulator disputed FERC’s assessment for his state, noting additional pipe infrastructure in his state was sorely needed to take care of the 22,000 MW of projected new gas-fired generation plants now in various stages of development. He indicated that a current gas load of 250 MMcf/d for the state electric generation plants was estimated to grow by 3 Bcf/d when all of the new gas-fired generation comes on line.

“All of the new plants are slated to connect to existing pipelines that are at full capacity today,” the Arizona regulator said. “So I think that underscores our concerns about the adequacy of current pipelines to meet the needs of the new power plants.” Moreover, he disagreed with FERC’s assumption that possibly only half of the plants now being developed would eventually be built. That wasn’t the case in Arizona, he said, which has a very high completion rate.

From 1996 through 2000, natural gas-fired electric generation rose 221% in the western states while other sources increased only 20% and hydro-electric fell 17%, according to FERC’s summary, noting that gas was essentially making up for the slump in hydro. For the western states overall, nameplate electric capacity was pegged at 151,000 MW, with 32,000 MW projected new plants — 25,000 MW of which are either under construction or in the late development stages.

The Commission’s assessment further envisioned enough natural gas reserves to serve the West (535,000 Tcf) for the next 50 years. Bradley Johnson of FERC’s Markets, Tariffs and Rates Office also pointed out that due to a general “lack of liquidity,” the western gas trading hubs were more susceptible to price volatility.

As part of a panel examining “factors inhibiting adequate [electric] infrastructure investment,” Gary Ackerman of the California-based Western Power Trading Forum, a group of 30 major electricity generators/marketers, offered three suggestions: (1) establish uniform rules for transmission grid access; (2) boost transmission reliability by requiring local load-serving entities (utilities, energy service providers and others) to be responsible for reliability of their parts of the grid; and (3) clarify what ownership rights mean in a regional transmission organization (RTO).

“We need to answer the question of how the FERC builds a common model for all RTOs that they seek to regulate and at the same time accommodate the different needs of all the different states,” said Ackerman, adding that there also needs to be recognition that sweeping prices caps ultimately will discourage new investment in generation, particularly in peaking plants. A number of western state regiulators and other officials argued in favor of price measures and continued regulation.

California’s Energy Commission chairman and others also urged that demand-side management be factored in to the planning for infrastructure reliability and upgrades, noting that even on an accelerated basis California only was able to put 2,000 MW of new generation out of a goal of 5,000 MW, while through stepped up conservation efforts that state got the equivalent of 7,000 MW for peak-demand hours.

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