Just one month after it ended a major reporting requirement for sellers of natural gas to the California market, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission has ordered all sellers of gas and electricity to western states to report their short- and long-term wholesale sale transactions for 2000 and 2001. The agency has threatened to take “appropriate enforcement action,” including issuing subpoenas, against companies that fail to respond.

The Commission is seeking information on energy sales to the 11 states that make up the U.S portion of the Western Systems Coordinating Council (WSCC) — California, Oregon, Washington, Idaho, Montana and Wyoming, to name a few — over the two-year period. The data is being collected, the agency said, as part of its just-launched investigation into the potential manipulation of energy prices in West Coast markets.

Specifically, FERC has asked sellers (both jurisdictional and non-jurisdictional) that were engaged in sales or resale transactions with a term of one week or less to report activity on a daily basis. It wants information on quantity and price, and transactions with affiliated buyers and non-affiliated buyers by specific delivery points.

In addition, the Commission is seeking identical data on “monthly” transactions of capacity and energy in the U.S. portion of the WSCC over the two years. Monthly transactions, according to FERC, are all wholesale capacity and wholesale energy sales or resales that were made on a monthly, seasonal or quarterly basis.

It also has asked for the same information on all long-term capacity and energy sale transactions (one year or more) in the U.S. part of the WSCC. These were contracts that were executed for delivery on or after Jan. 1, 2000.

FERC has ordered WSCC sellers to respond by no later than April 2. Three Excel spreadsheets that are needed to complete the Commission’s information request are contained in two files posted on the agency’s web site under https://www.ferc.gov/electric/bulkpower/pa02-2/pa02-2.htm. Parties seeking privileged treatment of information are advised to e-mail two versions of each spreadsheet to FERC, and earmark it as “confidential.”

©Copyright 2002 Intelligence Press Inc. Allrights reserved. The preceding news report may not be republishedor redistributed, in whole or in part, in any form, without priorwritten consent of Intelligence Press, Inc.